Kenya’s group stage action at the Singapore Sevens ended with a third straight defeat as the Shujaa fell 33-17 to Uruguay on Saturday.
Shujaa thus fell to classification rounds for the eighth straight tournament following opening defeats against France (26-19) and the USA (21-19).
They will face fellow strugglers Canada in the ninth place quarter final on Sunday.
Against Uruguay, the scores were level at 12-12 at half-time but three very different tries in the final four minutes sealed it.
Felipe Arcos Perez’s second try of the game came from a blindside scrum move, Tomas Etcheverry then touched down from inches out after Uruguay won a counter ruck on Kenya’s line, and last but not least Los Teros Sevens’ masked man, Mateo Vinals, finished spectacularly in the corner.
The Kenyans who are placed 13th on the standings are now are now in danger of relegation.
The World Series is reducing the number of men’s core teams for the 2024 season from 16 to 12, to equal the number of women’s teams and align with the Olympic competition structure.
The 15th-ranked core team following the 10th round in Toulouse on May 12-14 will be relegated.
The teams ranked 12th, 13th and 14th at the end of Toulouse will enter a four-team relegation playoff together with the Challenger Series 2023 winners at the 11th and final round of the Series in London on May 20-21.
The relegation playoff will be a round-robin format with the top two teams meeting in the final. The winner becomes the 12th core team on the 2024 Series.
This year’s series – which has two stops to go after Singapore – also serves as Olympic qualifiers, with the top four teams automatically joining hosts France in the 2024 Games in Paris.
After eight tournaments, New Zealand lead the standings with 142 points followed by Argentina with 121, Fiji with 113 and France with 112.
