Admir Cejvanovic was among 12 players named to the Canadian men’s rugby team which heads into this weekend’s last-chance repechage qualifier for the 2016 Olympics.
The squad will enter the 16-team tournament in Monaco vying for one spot to advance to the inaugural rugby sevens event at the Olympics. To capture the single berth, Canada will first have to emerge from its pool, which includes Germany, Sri Lanka and Uruguay.
“We are focusing on one game at a time, preparing in detail for that performance and then turning our attention to the next one,” head coach Liam Middleton said. “It’s all about the process, going about our work with intensity. Every team that competes in this tournament knows what the prize is.”
Cejvanovic, of the Burnaby Lake Rugby Club, has been in the Canada Sevens lineup all season.
Canada enters the tourney after a 13th place finish in the 2015-16 HSBC Sevens Series season, with the highlight a title at the inaugural Canada Sevens at BC Place. Cjevanovic was one of seven players who scored double-digit tries for Canada.
Two to play in women’s super series
The Canadian women’s 15s rugby team will lock horns with England, France and the U.S. in the Women’s Super Series in Salt Lake City, preparing for the 2017 Women’s Rugby World Cup in Ireland.
To do that, a 26-player roster was unveiled Tuesday, which included Burnaby Lake Rugby Club’s Carolyn McEwen and Simon Fraser Rugby’s Demi Stamatakis.
For McEwen, this is a return chance as the prop was a member of last year’s lineup which competed at the 2015 Super Series event in Alberta. She is one of 15 holdovers pulling on the red. Stamatakis will make her test match debut for Canada.
“England are the World Champions, France just won the Six Nations and USA is always a big battle so the competition will be tough,” head coach Francois Ratier said. “But that is what we need to be better and stronger.”
The competition starts July 1 when Canada takes on England.
Harper tops Chilliwack stop
Leo Harper posted five birdies over the second round to lock up the Canadian Junior Golf Association’s tour stop in Chilliwack last week.
Harper, of Burnaby, led with an even-par 72 after Day 1 of the event to give him a three-stroke advantage heading into the final round. While Vancouver’s Ilirian Zalli
registered a tourney-best 68 on Day 2, Harper was almost as hot with a 69 to win the under-15 bantam title by two strokes.
In fourth place was Burnaby’s Andy Luo. Luo fired rounds of 78 and 73 to finish at 151 over two days, two shots back of third.
