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.
She is in a relationship with Meg Jones, who co-captained GB in Tokyo and is representing England in the ongoing Six Nations tournament.
The pair, who both play for Leicester Tigers, were flooded with media requests around the Tokyo Games.
“When you are doing well, you get all the publicity, and feel you can use your voice more,” Quansah said.
“Around the Olympics, there was loads of media attention, so we could share our story with the world. When you are injured, the attention drops, and I want to get back that voice and platform.”
Emma Hayes, the Chelsea women’s football head coach, last month said relationships between teammates were “inappropriate”. Quansah had not heard those comments, but said “we speak about it a lot as a team”.
“We want to inspire the next generation, and we have a chance to show people it is OK to be openly gay, and to have a partner in the team,” she added.
“A big motivation for both of us is to encourage people to be themselves, and we want to be role models.”
Quansah acknowledged she had not been “100 per cent ready” for the “unforgiving” world series when she came back from a dislocated femur, as well as a lateral meniscus tear and ruptured ACL in her right knee, in early 2023.
She ruptured the ACL in her left knee at the end of 2021, but recovered for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Quansah said the 10s, which began in 1986, was a great chance to “dust off the cobwebs, make some mistakes, play fun rugby, and find the love for it again”.
“Everyone thinks it is a social, but it is really competitive, and I have got so much out of it,” she added.
Quansah was dashing back to England on Friday night to grab a rare opportunity to spend time with Jones, who has a weekend off Six Nations duty.
“Our paths never meet; we have not seen each other for a month, and won’t for another month,” Quansah said.
She arranged a flight to arrive home in time to watch on television as her teammates try to collect valuable points in Hong Kong, and remain outside the world series bottom four.
“There is pressure to get away from the relegation zone. If we can do well this weekend, and get ourselves out of trouble, we can begin focusing on Paris,” Quansah said.
“There are a lot of constraints around GB: we are a full-time programme but train together once a month, if that. But, hopefully, this is the year we get an Olympic medal.”
Meanwhile, in the women’s Cup competition, China Five Stars overcame Shandong Rugby Club 24-0 in an all-mainland final. Shogun RFC, runners-up in 2023, won the men’s Cup with a 14-12 final victory over Pig Athletic Club BaaBaas.
