It’s the first Olympics to have rugby since 1924, marking the first time that the rugby-crazed country had the opportunity to take a medal in the sport.
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Fiji’s capital Suva ground to a standstill during the Rio Games men’s rugby sevens final, then burst in to cheers, pandemonium and a cacophony of vehicle horns after the archipelago nation won its first ever Olympic medal.
The Fijians ran in five first-half tries and cruised to victory to win a first medal in the nation’s history in a sport that dominates the local landscape.
“As the final whistle sounded. people took to the streets of Suva with the Fiji flag, dancing and running from one end to the other”, the Times said.
The women’s world series champion Australians won the gold medal in a final against No. 2-ranked New Zealand, and Canada beat Britain for bronze.
“We’ve had the opportunity and we thank the International Olympic Committee for that”.
“You know we had Winston, the second-biggest hurricane that swept through Fiji in February”, he said.
“We’ve got celebrations programmed for when (the team) return”.
Rugby returned to the Rio Olympics after 92 years, with the sevens format used in Brazil enjoying a cult following in Fiji, where crowds gathered in bars, shopping centers and at the national stadium to watch the match at 10am (2200 GMT Thursday).
“We’re very happy for our boys and proud of coach Ben Ryan”.
Later in life, he attended both Loughborough University (BSc in Sports Science) and Cambridge University (MPhil in Education), where he won two Blues as a scrum-half in the winning sides of 1995 and 1996, as well as captaining the Light Blues’ Sevens team.
And, it makes it achievable for countries which don’t have a long rugby tradition or a huge budget to be competitive at the Olympics.
“We put everything on the line over the last few days and that game was probably one too far”.
Japan will host the 2019 Rugby World Cup, and it is expected the Olympic tournament in 2020 will be staged in the Ajinomoto Stadium, which is close to the main Olympic venues and holds 45,000 people.
“I wanted to thank the Olympic committee for including rugby sevens into the Olympics and we hope the brand of rugby we played today has justified the inclusion”, he said.
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Bainimarama said Fiji was “a tiny little dot” but the Olympic victory would put it on the map.
