Tokyo 2020: Hong Kong lose out to China in sevens Olympic qualifier final; qualify for last-ditch repechage next year

Hong Kong’s women’s sevens team could not conjure an upset for the ages as they fell to a dominant China outfit 33-0 in the final of the Asia Rugby sevens Tokyo 2020 Olympic qualifier in Guangzhou on Sunday.

After upsetting Kazakhstan in the semi-finals, Hong Kong were sufficiently outgunned by a clinical Chinese side who will now join Japan, who qualify as hosts, for the Games in Tokyo next year.

Hong Kong, who had performed incredibly earlier on in the day to pull off a shock win against Asian heavyweights Kazakhstan, ran up against an irresistible Chinese force despite starting the game well and wasting a fine opportunity to level the score soon after falling behind in the first half.

In the end, they could not handle the peerless Chen Keyi, easily the player of the weekend after notching over 50 points and a talent to look out for in Tokyo.

Head coach Iain Monaghan said there were a lot of positives they could take from the loss.

“We set ourselves the goal of making the final so we made that,” he said.