The Fiji-born Green was a talented sprinter in track and field as a junior and only took to rugby sevens four years ago, nearly by mistake.
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“I have always been and will always be a clean athlete and have been vocal in my anti-doping stance throughout my career”.
Rugby sevens player Sam Cross has extra motivation to do well in Brazil having persuaded his friends to fork out for a second summer holiday after his maiden Olympics, writes Liam Blackburn.
KOLINISAU: When I started playing rugby back then, I always wanted to play for Fiji- it was just a dream. “He told me ‘You should try rugby, you’d be so good at it'”.
So when rugby sevens was added to the Olympic program for Rio, the goal posts shifted and gold became the goal.
She eventually had to give up the sport during her teenage years because of a lack of opportunity, with no women’s or girl’s team nearby to play in.
Kish, the liberally tattooed 28-year-old from Edmonton, who looks as though you could break rocks on her arms and legs and shoulders, is supremely confident in the team’s ability to be on the medals podium. “That’s one thing (Yolanta) was anxious about”.
“The quality of the opposition we’ll face during the Rugby Championship will require a growth in our physicality, intensity and the standard of our preparation”, Hansen said.
Ellia Green (left) used to be a track and field athlete. “They only picked two”.
The team has several players drawn from other sports, including Chloe Dalton, who earlier had aspirations to be in Australia’s women’s basketball team, field hockey players Shannon Parry and Sharni Williams, who was a full-time auto mechanic, and Charlotte Caslick and Alicia Quirk from touch football – a non-contact form of rugby.
“I want to be a tough girl who can do anything”, she said.
South Africa, with speedster Seabelo Senatla on the wing, and Australia are also strong contenders, while Britain could get among the medals if they manage to bring together a squad of players who usually play for England, Wales and Scotland.
Fiji are seeded number one in the men’s competition ahead of South Africa, New Zealand and the United States.
The fast, free-flowing nature of the game, passionate spectators and festival atmosphere that are associated with a sevens tournament, along with its growing global broadcast audience and social media following, will make it an exciting addition to the Olympic schedule. A regular rugby match consists of two 40-minute periods, and it would take too long for players to recover from the exhaustion and brutality of a full rugby match for a tournament to be completed within the Olympics’ two-week time span.
From a rugby sevens perspective, she looks to the likes of US men’s players Carlin Isles and Perry Baker. The Olympics for me was just watching from the telly, watching the likes of Usain Bolt. I love building – I did some construction work past year.
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“But I think Team Canada’s done a great job making sure the residence is ready and everything’s in place”.
