Guyana drawn with rivals Jamaica for rugby Olympic qualifiers

Guyana’s ruggers, eight-time Caribbean Sevens champions, are placed in Pool B alongside arch-rivals and defending champions Jamaica, hosts Cayman Islands and Trinidad and Tobago for the Rugby Americas North (RAN) Sevens championships from July 6-7.

Pool A consists of Canada, Bermuda, Mexico and Barbados.

The tournament serves as a regional qualification event for the Games of the XXXII Olympiad Tokyo 2020 to take place July 24 to August 9, 2020, in Tokyo, Japan.

As with the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics, the top four teams in the Men’s and Women’s HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2019 will confirm their places in Tokyo and an additional six teams will qualify through regional association tournaments.

The final opportunity for Olympic qualification will be at the World Rugby Olympic Repechage tournament, due to take place in June 2020.

Twelve teams, comprising of the next two highest ranked teams based on 2019 regional qualification rankings from each region, will be invited to participate in these Olympic Repechage tournaments.

At the time of release, USA Rugby Men’s Sevens sit at the top of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, while USA Rugby Women’s Sevens and Rugby Canada Women’s Sevens are ranked two and three respectively.

In the event that USA Rugby Women’s Sevens and Rugby Canada Women’s Sevens qualify through the World Series there will not be a direct qualifier from this tournament, however the top two women’s teams will qualify for the Repechage.

This year’s July 6-7 tournament will be at the Truman Bodden Sports Complex, a 3,000 seat stadium that is no stranger to international events.

The 2018 RAN Sevens was last held in Barbados with Jamaica Men and Mexico Women grabbing the first place titles. Guyana lost the final to rivals Jamaica 17-22.