Kenya Lionesses seal 2020 Olympics spot

The national women's rugby sevens team, Kenya Lionesses have qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after cruising into the cup finals at the ongoing Africa 7s in Tunisia.

They beat Tunisia 19-0 in the semi final on Sunday and lost 15-14 to South Africa in the final. South Africa will not feature in Tokyo 7s despite winning, this is due to South Africa Olympic committee not allowing them to qualify for the summer games set for 2020 thus handing Kenya the direct ticket.

The South Africa Olympic Committee introduced a rule preventing its teams from qualifying for the Olympics from an African regional competition.

Africa Rugby governing body (Rugby Africa) confirmed in a tweet that Felix Oloo’s charges still qualified to the 2020 Olympic Games.

“South African Sports Confederation & Olympic Committee's internal rules do not permit Springbok Women to qualify for the Olympic Games directly from the African Qualifier tournament."

Olympic Repechage

South Africa beat Madagascar 29-0 in their semi-final.

Rugby Africa also confirmed that South Africa and Kenya have qualified for to compete in a qualification tournament for the 2020-2021 World Rugby Sevens Series and announced that Tunisia and Madagascar have qualified for the Olympic Repechage.

Kenya and South Africa set up a repeat of the 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 final after running out winners in the semi-final stage.

Madagascar and Tunisia joined France, Russia, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Jamaica in the Repechage slated for June 2020.

Aside from proving a route to Tokyo Olympics, the African competition also served as qualification for the 2020-2021 World Rugby Sevens Series qualification tournament.

By reaching the final in Monastir, Kenya and South Africa remained in the hunt for a ticket to become a core team on the Sevens Series. The winner of the Repechage will compete reach Olympics