Tradition Hong Kong 10s: Great Britain’s Celia Quansah has ‘unfinished business’ as she targets Paris Olympics spot
- The GB winger, whose Haywards Tropics side won the Tradition Hong Kong 10s women’s Plate, hopes to regain her sevens spot
- The 10s, which ushered in the iconic sevens weekend, was won by Shogun RFC and China Five Stars in the men’s and women’s events, respectively
The ongoing transformation of the Tradition Hong Kong 10s from a carefree social outing preceding the serious sevens into a competitive entity in its own right was underlined by Celia Quansah’s appearance for Haywards Tropics.
The Great Britain winger, whose Tropics side won the women’s Plate competition, is bidding to regain her GB sevens place in time for the Paris Olympics.
A member of the team that lost a bronze-medal match to Fiji in the Tokyo Games in 2021, Quansah said Team GB have “unfinished business” in the Olympic arena.
The 28-year-old played in recent world series tournaments in Vancouver and Los Angeles, after recovering from long-term injury, but missed the cut for Hong Kong. Quansah was instead told to play the 10s competition at the Hong Kong Football Club.
“Ideally, I would be playing in the sevens, but I want to be in Paris, and I saw this as an opportunity [to impress],” Quansah, who was playing 10s for the first time, told the Post. “I will do whatever I can to be in the best position possible in July.”
Along with competitive goals, Quansah’s Olympic ambition stems from her desire to regain a prominent platform as an openly gay athlete.
