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Douglas, Canada win gold in rugby sevens event

Canada narrowly defeated Argentina in the gold medal contest, 22-19, after a last-second try from Harry Jones pushed the men’s team ahead.
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Abbotsford’s Justin Douglas (fifth from right) and the 12-man Canadian men’s rugby sevens team secured gold on Sunday at the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games

Abbotsford’s Justin Douglas and the 12-man Canadian men’s rugby sevens team secured gold on Sunday, July 12 at the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games.

Canada narrowly defeated Argentina in the gold medal contest, 22-19, after a last-second try from Harry Jones pushed the men’s team ahead.

To get to this point, Canada took on Chile in the quarterfinal round and secured a close sudden-death, extra-time victory, 17-12.

In the semi-finals, the Canadians then faced a U.S. team that had beaten them last month in the finals of the NACRA Sevens Olympic qualifying tournament.

But, on home soil, Canada was able to serve up some retribution overcoming the Americans, 26-19 to reach the gold medal game.

On the first day of the event, in front of a passionate home crowd, Canada raced out to a 45-0 victory over Guyana and a 26-14 win over Brazil, before falling to Argentina 21-7 in their pool finale.

Douglas notched tries in the games against Brazil and Argentina.

This is the men’s second consecutive title as they also clinched gold in Guadalajara in 2011.

The men’s national team will now look to gear up for the 2015 World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup, which runs July 18 to Aug. 3 and will feature Tier 2 nations Fiji, Japan, Samoa, Tonga and the U.S.

The Canadian women also managed the top podium spot in their inaugural event making rugby sevens a hallmark success for the host nation.