lhe Sevens women’s and men’s teams have completed the Singapore tournament, the seventh stop of the HSBC SVNS, in eleventh and tenth position, respectively. The ‘Leones7s’ closed their third day of the championship with a 19-24 victory against Brazil, while the ‘Leones7s’ in their last match competed against the double Olympic champion, Fiji, but a great second half by the Oceanic team closed the match in the 21-12 final.
With the tournament still to be completed, Spain maintains its twelfth position in the women’s circuit and tenth place in the men’s circuitso they will fight in Madrid to stay, one more year, in the World Series.
Tobi Sainz-Trápaga with the ball.
Next May 31, June 1 and 2 at the Metropolitan stadium in Madrid, the best 8 teams of the HSBC SVNS will play for the title that accredits them as the best team in the world, while Spain, along with the other last 3 on the circuit, will compete with 4 other candidates to be among the 12 teams that will make up the elite of the Olympic discipline next season.
In the Asian Tournament the ‘Leonas7s’, placed in Group A They could not beat New Zealand (38-7), Canada (28-7) or Ireland (25-7) in the group stage and fought in the semifinals for 9th place against South Africa (26-14), against whom they were also unable to achieve their first victory. In the final to avoid the last position those of María Ribera did manage to shine with a 19-24 victory against Brazil with four tries scored by Juana Stella, María Calvo, Eva Aguirre and Marta Cantabrana.
For their part, The ‘Leones7s’ were also unable to compete in Group B. in the preliminary phase with South Africa (31-7) or France (17-12), despite the fact that they had the victory or at least the draw in their hands in the last play. In the match that closed the group stage against Samoa (5-40) Paco Hernández’s team brought out their best version to secure their first victory of the Asian tournament, but the good performance of their rivals in the rest of the groups kept them away from the gold quarterfinals.
As luck would have it, in the semifinals for 9th place, Paco Hernández’s team would meet again precisely against what had been their last rival, Samoa, whom they beat again 19-12. Already in the final for 9th place, the double Olympic champions from Fji knew how to come back in the second half to win a hard-fought match 21-12.
Both the ‘Leones7s’ and ‘Las Leonas7s’ will therefore fight in Madrid for permanence, along with the three remaining teams that have finished from 9th to 12th place overall, as well as with the four best of the promotion Challenger, which will be finalized in the last round to be held in mid-May.
