At the end of two days of intense, high-quality competition, Chile men and Kenya women took top honours at the opening round of the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025 in Cape Town.
Like Kenya’s men’s side, who achieved promotion to HSBC SVNS 2025 via the Challenger, Kenya’s women got off to the perfect start with victory in round 1.
Kenya’s women beat South Africa 15-19 in the semi-final, while Chile’s men reached the final thanks to a 31-14 win over Samoa. Chile was a dominant force in the men’s competition and claimed gold with a 33-7 win over Canada in the final.
Germany’s men’s side recovered from a semi-final defeat to claim the bronze medal with a 19-14 defeat of Samoa. South Africa’s women convincingly beat Colombia with 0-29 for third place.
Argentina and Canada were impressive throughout the weekend and claimed the silver.
Chile men’s captain Lucca Avelli was delighted with the win: “We’ve put a lot of work in over the last year, and I’m very proud of the group. This win is really great. Our goal is to get HSBC SVNS, and we won’t stop until we get there.
Amid ecstatic celebrations in front of a contingent of supporters, Kenya captain Grace Okulu said: “This victory is nice because we’ve never won a Challenger series. It is a milestone for us. I’m happy for the team, and I’m delighted for everyone who supports us. We must carry on with the momentum and prepare hard for the next series this coming weekend. It has been an amazing journey for us and we are happy that things are working out for us.”
The Challenger series starts with back-to-back events in Cape Town, with the top-ranked eight men’s and women’s teams progressing to the third and final tournament at the Henryk Reyman’s Municipal Stadium in Krakow on 11-12 April.
The four men’s and women’s teams with the most cumulative points gained across the three Challenger rounds will then qualify for the HSBC SVNS Play Off in Los Angeles on 3 – 4 May, where they will face the bottom four ranked teams from HSBC SVNS 2025 in a high-stakes promotion and relegation tournament with four coveted places in future SVNS at stake.
The Challenger was introduced in February 2020 to boost the development of rugby sevens across the globe and provide a clear promotion pathway to reach the top level of global rugby sevens for the short format of the game, which has experienced massive growth over the past two decades since the introduction of the global sevens series and becoming an Olympic sport at the Rio 2016 Games.
Fans around the globe can watch the action on rugbypass.tv or via domestic broadcast partners.
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South Africa’s triumph in the 1995 Rugby World Cup, held in South Africa, was a symbol of unity for the nation, with the iconic image of Nelson Mandela wearing a Springbok jersey while handing the trophy to captain Francois Pienaar. This event was immortalized in the 2009 film “Invictus.”
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Sport Trivia: Sally Little became golf\’s 12th LPGA millionaire in 1985. She first made her mark by being name the LPGA Rookie of the Year in what year? Answer: 1971-72. Sally Little went on to win 15 LPGA titles, including three majors.