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Fiji's Olympic title defence postponed for a year

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Fiji will have to wait an extra year to defend their Olympic Sevens title after Tokyo Games officials decided to postpone the event until summer 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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The Fijians charged to glory in the Rio heat when the 2016 Olympics were held in Brazil, but they will no longer be defending their title as planned in Japan later this year following an announcement by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

A statement on the Japanese PM’s official English Twitter account read: “After his telephone talks with IOC president Thomas Bach, PM Abe spoke to the press and explained that the two have agreed that the Tokyo Olympic Games would not be cancelled and the games will be held by the summer of 2021.”

The IOC’s executive board is now set to formally announce a postponement later on Tuesday.

There have been confirmed cases of the coronavirus in 165 countries with well over 300,000 people diagnosed so far.

Social distancing restrictions imposed by national governments across the globe have had a huge impact on athletes’ ability to prepare and train for the Games, and they had been crying out for the IOC to end the uncertainty and postpone.

The preparations of rugby teams for the Games have been hit by a series of HSBC Sevens Series postponements. 

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J
JW 42 minutes ago
Leicester Fainga'anuku denied All Blacks eligibility for TRC

I’m not sure where that’s going but does it raise a valid point? Yes would be the answer you’re angling for?


It was (on air here) last year, but not this year. I haven’t seen why, my guess was that it’s because no English version comes out from the “closed off billionaires league” and they couldn’t get an english one. I think they have to get it from the UK broadcasters and maybe that market changed this year?


The quality of it wasn’t my point, purely correlation of those performances to ones at home. He is the only one over there, there was no marker for ABs to valuate from. He wasn’t a solid choice, in that you knew what you were getting, he was still more of a sensation in the All Blacks, and he was playing a different position.


Those are just direct points to counter JBs thoughts. I’m not saying they were used in any way (I think theyd have to be part of why NZR have the current eligibility rules though), this situation was simply a matter of starting at the back of the class if you’re not here. Only vets can earn sabbaticals (which is essentially what people are asking for in this case). There’s no argument this isn’t the right call.


As with the topic in the above paragraph, we could go on and on about it, but I will say I did see after the fact the final was broadcast FTA (no that I’d watch live, still have yet to watch the replay) straight off mondos website (im guessing it was a laggy pos tho), which is/was good. I also wanted to watch Brad Weber and Lester last year (start of the season) so went on line for a few (and tried to catch Max Hicks), that Brad was fabulous, Lester less so. Lester was also less that good in this international window. So I did see enough to know they are very different games, and I can tell it’s going to take him a while to get on his feet here again.

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