Adam Radwan primed for SVNS switch

Newcastle Falcons winger Adam Radwan has been granted permission to train with the Great Britain Sevens team in their preparation for the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris.

Radwan is keen to follow in the footsteps of international rugby stars such as Antoine Dupont and Michael Hooper, who have also made the transition to the Sevens format ahead of the Olympic Games.

The 26-year-old certainly has the raw speed. Radwan has been clocked at 11.2 metres a second on GPS, which translates to 25 miles per hour. That's just 2 miles per hour slower than Usain Bolt's maximum speed in the 100 metres and faster than the Welsh rugby star turned NFL hopeful Louis Rees-Zammit.

Newcastle Falcons' head coach Steve Diamond has backed Radwan's ambitions in an interview with the Daily Mail this weekend. "It would be great for Adam and the club if he got selected,’ said Diamond. "There’s a Madrid training camp at the end of the season and as long as the insurance protocols are covered then he can go with our blessing. It doesn’t matter if he misses a couple of games."

Radwan's decision comes as the Sevens circuit approaches its final stages, with only the Singapore and Madrid finals remaining before the Olympics in July. While French megastar Dupont has quickly adapted to the Sevens game, former Wallabies back row Hooper is still adjusting but remains a potential inclusion for the Australian squad.

Radwan - who has won 2 caps for England at Test level but has fallen out of favour under Steve Borthwick - will be hoping he hasn't left his transition to the shortened form of rugby union too late. He's given himself a mountain to climb however as he will be attempting to break into the GB SVNS squad with very little competitive top-level game time under his belt.

Speaking last December, Radwan told Nik Simon in the Mail that: "It [SVNS rugby] would improve my defence, marking players with fast feet in big spaces. I’d have to earn a spot and play a couple of tournaments before. We’re not through to the next round of the Prem Cup, so there will be a couple of free weekends. We’ll have to see. It’s right up there with the biggest sporting events in the world, so it would be an honour to be part of something like that."