England’s Dan Norton made history at the Hong Kong Sevens by breaking the sport’s all-time try-scoring record.
When he out-sprinted South Korea’s defence to collect his own chip ahead, the 29-year-old scored the 245th try of his sevens career and surpassed the tally he had previously shared with Kenya’s Collins Injera.
Fiji won the Hong Kong Sevens for the third consecutive year, convincingly beating South Africa’s Blitzboks 22-0 in front of a sell-out crowd at the Hong Kong Stadium.
The victory lifts last year’s Olympic champion above England to second in the overall standings. It was Fiji’s first tournament win of the season, having previously lost finals in Dubai, Wellington, and Las Vegas.
The Blitzboks, who were playing in their eighth consecutive series final, still hold a 23-point lead at the top of the World Series standings with three tournaments remaining.
Faster than Usian Bolt?
Throughout the season, Norton has steadily chipped away at Injera’s record, which was set in May last year.
But while the Kenyan has found tries hard to come by of late — he failed to score as Kenya lost 17-14 to Canada in Hong Kong — Norton has been in blistering form.
As well as topping the all-time charts, the prolific Englishman also leads the way with 36 tries in this season’s World Series.
“The hardest thing was trying to control my brain this week and concentrate on the process that got me there in the first place,” said Norton after breaking the record.
“It was always nice to get it out the way.
“There’s a lot more to come, but obviously Collins is still out there playing so now it’s about doing as well as we can for our country and win as many tournaments as we can.”
While many players combine their sevens duties with the 15-aside game, Norton has played barely 30 seconds in the English Premiership — a brief cameo off the bench for Gloucester nine years ago.
Since then, Norton has established himself as one of the all-time great sevens specialists.
He has played for England in 64 World Series events and won Olympic silver with Great Britain in Rio last year.
The winger in renowned for his blistering pace. Indeed, he once ran 2.7 seconds for 20 meters — faster than Usain Bolt ran when the Jamaican set the 100m world record in 2009.
Fiji finally delivers under great expectations
The Hong Kong sevens is one of the most iconic events on the rugby calendar. With 120,000 fans attending over the three days, the usual array of colorful costumes and bold fancy dress was on display.
For Fiji, there was relief to finally win its first tournament of the year.
“With the quality of players we have here I’m very aware that we should be winning cups,” said head coach Gareth Baber.
“I’m also aware that Ben (Ryan, Fiji’s former coach) did a great job and that we needed to keep the pressure on South Africa at the top of the table.
“I knew they could do it — it was just a matter of time before we could get it done.”
Meanwhile, Australia beat the USA to finish third — its best result of the season so far. Spain won the Hong Kong Sevens qualifier event to book its place on next year’s sevens circuit.
The Sevens World Series resumes next weekend in Singapore.
