End of the road for Shujaa at Paris Olympics
Kenya Sevens' Vincent Onyala (left) and Nygel Pettersan Amaitsa (right) vie for the ball with Samoa's Vaa Apelu Maliko durng their rugby sevens match of the Paris Olympic Games on July 25, 2024 at the Stade de France, Saint-Denis, France.
What you need to know:
- It was their third loss in the group after previous defeats to Argentina and Australia on Wednesday.
Kenya Sevens are out of the Paris Olympic Games before the party barely gets started.
Shujaa crashed out of the medal play-off contention after they went down to Samoa 26-0 in their last Pool “B” match at the Stade de France on Thursday.
Shujaa had on Wednesday lost to Argentina 31-12 and Australia 21-7 to complicate their chances of making the medal bracket.
Many thought Shujaa would defeat Samoa convincingly to redeem themselves and have a chance of making it to the medal play-off, but it wasn't to be.
Shujaa dropped to the classification matches that will be played later Thursday, as their dream of improving on their 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Games showing went up in smoke.
Kenya Sevens before their Paris Olympics rugby match against Samoa at Stade de France stadium in Paris, France on July 25, 2024.
Indiscipline proved costly for Kenya after they played one man less in each half after Kelvin Wekesa and co-captain Tony Omondi were sin-binned.
The Samoans recycled the ball with great accuracy to completely shut out Shujaa as Motu Opetai touched down before Faafoi Falaniko added the extras for a 7-0 lead.
Wekesa was then sin-binned to cut off any hopes of making a comeback as the Kenyans trailed 7-0 at the break.
Falaniko converted Canlan Paul’s try to stretch their lead to 12-0 before Omondi was sin-binned for infringement.
Apelu Maliko Vaa made things difficult for Shujaa with another try that Tom Maiava converted before Steve Onosai completed the routing with Neueli Leitufia adding the extras.
