USA and Argentina triumphant at Quest for Gold Sevens

Having won this weekend’s Quest for Gold Sevens, the USA women’s and Argentina men’s teams will be hoping to add another medal of that colour to their collection at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in just under a month’s time.

The Women’s Sevens Eagles went through the tournament weekend unbeaten with a 71-0 win over Jamaica followed by three victories and a draw against Team GB.

Meanwhile, five wins out of six was enough for Argentina, coached by Santiago Gómez Cora, to win the men’s title and further underline their Olympic credentials.

Recently they have won preparation tournaments in Dubai and Madrid as well as successfully defending their Sudamerica Sevens title.

“We are happy in winning the tournament, our sixth in the season,” said Gómez Cora. “But what gives us more pride is the hard work done by the guys over this time, more so the past two weeks in Chula Vista and in the preparation for this tournament, in search of opponents of higher quality.

“We came to play Team GB and managed to beat them on Friday and today (Saturday), playing very well, so I am happy with the boys’ performance and the final outcome of the tournament."

Argentina were today (Monday) drawn in the same pool at the Olympics as antipodean rivals, New Zealand and Australia, and Korea.

Gold dust

Meanwhile, the US Women’s Sevens Eagles impressed with their speed, physicality and support play in Los Angeles, raising hopes they can challenge defending women’s Olympic champions Australia for top spot in Pool C in Tokyo.

“We started strong against Jamaica and then just built into four matches against a strong Great Britain side. They’re no slouches in any capacity. Just really proud of the effort the girls put in,” said co-captain Abby Gustaitis.

“We’re going home with the gold and just focusing on our game plan. We’ve got four weeks of hard training at home before Tokyo and then eyes on that gold medal.”

The Women’s Sevens Eagles lost highly-rated youngster, Ariana Ramsey, to injury early on but she is expected to recover in time for Tokyo.

Naya Tapper was among the standout performers with two hat-tricks, while Kristi Kirshe also ran in three tries in the opening game of the tournament against Jamaica and added two more later on.

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