Tokyo Olympics: Simiyu targets quarters despite tough pool

The national rugby sevens head coach Innocent ‘Namcos’ Simiyu is targeting a quarter finals berth at the Tokyo Olympics.

Shujaa landed a tough-looking pool for the tourney after drawing South Africa, USA and Ireland but Simiyu is confident they can get out of the group with solid performances, adding that they’ll take each game at a time.

“Our key target is the quarter finals then after their we’ll take a game at a time and hopefully we’ll see where we reach in the tournament,” said Simiyu

Despite the tough group, Simiyu is optimistic of winning the first two games.

“We’re in a tough group but at the Olympics there is no easy game…and our key focus is how we execute our game plan and we take the right boxes, through performance we’ll get positive results,” added Simiyu.

Shujaa are currently in training camp at Kasarani and they’ll not participate in another tournament ahead of the Olympics with the squad expected to be named in the course of the week.

“The camp is good, all the boys are looking sharp so we’re just fine-tuning and looking for the best combination ahead of the team naming this week,” said Simiyu.

“For us it is only the camp and we’ll be having internal training matches due to the Covid 19 situation,” added the youthful tactician.

The rugby sevens tournaments will be held from 26th to 31st July at the Tokyo Stadium, with men’s competition taking place from 26-28 July while the women’s tournament will follow on 29-31 July.

Men

Pool A: New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, South Korea

Pool B: Fiji, Great Britain, Canada, Japan

Pool C: South Africa, USA, Kenya, Ireland

Women:

Pool A: New Zealand, Russia, Great Britain, Kenya

Pool B: Canada, France, Fiji, Brazil

Pool C: Australia, USA, China, Japan