Canada roared to victory at the Rugby Americas North Sevens in the Cayman Islands to book their spot in the men’s game at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games.
They began at the Truman Bodden National Sports Complex in George Town with a 47-5 quarter-final win over Guyana before a 55-0 demolition of Bermuda in the last four.
In the gold medal match, they were too strong for Jamaica winning 40-5 to claim the sole Tokyo Olympics 2020 space available from the tournament.
Canada had failed to reach the Olympics via the 2018-2019 World Rugby Sevens Series and sacked English coach Damian McGrath in May replacing him on an interim basis with New Zealand-born Henry Paul.
To all of our fans supporter’s staff before and now, we love you all.
This is such a great feeling.”
Australia Rugby co-captain Sharni Williams will never forget the amazing feeling of winning rugby sevens gold at Rio 2016 and would love to defend their Olympic 2020 title when the Tokyo Olympic 2020 women’s sevens competition kicks off in a year’s time.
In 12 months’ time periods Australia co-captain Sharni Williams will confidence to lead her nation out at Tokyo Rugby Stadium when the women’s rugby sevens competition gets underway at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Williams and her Australian teammates wrote their names into the history books on 8 August 2016 as rugby sevens’ first Olympic gold medalists at Rio 2016 in Brazil day the former car mechanic will never forget.
No one can take that moment away from us Williams told World Rugby after Australia confirmed their place at Tokyo 2020 with a 4 place finish on the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series 2019.
“It was a phenomenal day for us, we’d planned it day in day out and four years we’d been waiting for it and to be able to play for your country along with other sports was a totally amazing feeling.
I think we’ll continue to celebrate it years from now.”
Karate, a system of unarmed combat that literally means "empty hand," is said to have developed during the 17th century in the Okinawa prefecture, a chain of islands off the southern coast of Japan.
Despite being popularized worldwide as a sport after World War II, karate -- along with four other sports -- will be part of the Summer Olympics for the first time in 2020.
Fittingly, it makes its Olympic debut in Japan, where the sport, which involves executing arm- and leg-based strikes, first originated.
It joins judo, taekwondo, and wrestling as the only Olympics-approved martial arts -- for 2020 anyway: Karate failed to make the cut for the Paris Olympics in 2024.
Karate Events at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics
In Tokyo, Karate practitioners, or karatekas, will compete at Nippon Budokan, an indoor legacy venue built to host judo events at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
