Kurt Baker, right, with fellow veterans Scott Curry and Tim Mikkelson. Photo / Kurt Baker - Instagram
Kurt Baker, right, with fellow veterans Scott Curry and Tim Mikkelson. Photo / Kurt Baker - Instagram
Five years after sevens made its Olympics debut, the world was treated to a dream final in the event.
But unfortunately for New Zealand, and veteran Kurt Baker, of Hawke's Bay, it wasn't quite a dream result.
There were no traditional cheeky celebrations from Baker, who played the 2020 seasonwith the championship-winning Magpies, as the All Blacks Sevens had to content themselves with the silver medal.
They were simply overpowered by great rivals Fiji 27-12 at Tokyo Stadium on Wednesday night.
It was New Zealand's second sevens silver after the women's side were runners-up in Rio five years ago, a medal collection that could increase when the Black Ferns Sevens kick off their campaign tomorrow.
But despite that silver hue now complementing the black jersey, the men's side were unable to attain the redemption they sought after the horror show of Rio 2016.
The Kiwi men were nervous debutants at those Games, losing to Japan and Great Britain in pool play before being dumped out of the quarter-finals by Fiji.
New Zealand's woes denied the sport what would have been a fitting finale to its first inclusion at the Olympics. But the wait for a showpiece between the traditional rivals was fortunately brief.
And if Wednesday night delivered a perfect advertisement for the game on the global stage, defending champion Fiji were more than worthy gold medallists.
"Fiji were the better team," an emotional Scott Curry told Sky TV. "We gave it everything and that's all we could do, all we could ask from this group. Every day, every game that's what we do, and we came up short."
