Kenya's Sevens team face test to rejoin main Sevens Series

Kenya’s Sevens are set for a monumental Qualifier tournament this weekend that will hopefully see them get back into the HSBC World Sevens Series for next season.

Already qualified for the Olympics by shocking the Blitzboks in the African Cup in Zimbabwe last year, the Shujaa now look to complete their season’s aim by getting back into the series they were relegated from last season in the Grand Final tournament in Madrid this weekend.

While the top eight teams in the Sevens Series will battle it out for supremacy in Madrid, the bottom four and the top four from the Challenger Series will go head to head in a battle to see who makes up the final four positions next season in the main series.

Our squad to this weekend's HSBC SVNS 2024 Grand Final in Madrid, Spain where we will be competing for promotion to HSBC SVNS 2025.#Shujaa #SportpesaNaShujaa #HSBCSVNS pic.twitter.com/brTj3HsdOk

— Shujaa (@KenyaSevens) May 29, 2024

Kenya have been preparing for the tournament in France, with a 10-day training camp and are keen to make it count as they line up in Pool B against Samoa and Spain on Friday and Chile on Saturday.

Pool A sees Canada, Germany, Uruguay and the USA fight it out. The top four teams at the tournament will qualify for next season’s main Sevens Series.

Shujaa assistant coach Louis Kisia told the Pulse newspaper that they have a few tricks up their sleeve for the tournament.

"We have worked on a couple of things which we believe will give us the edge in the three-day competition.

"This is what we have been preparing for for the entire season. The boys are in high spirits. We had a good session in France where we looked at everything from attack, defence and setpiece to basic core skills.

"Our mantra the entire season has been to take one game at a time. It's going to be a long weekend. There will be ups and downs but the boys have trained hard all season.

"We ask our fans to turn up in big numbers and pray that we return to the World Seven Series next season."

SHUJAA SQUAD

Vincent Onyala, Tony Omondi, Kevin Wekesa, John Okoth, Brian Tanga, George Ooro, Patrick Odongo, Samuel Asati, Herman Humwa, Nygel Amaitsa, Lamec Ambetsa, Chrisant Ojwang, Brian Mutua.