DPA
Berlin
Antoine Dupont was brilliant to lead hosts France to a first gold medal at the Paris Olympics as they claimed a 28-7 men’s rugby sevens win against Fiji.
France initially fell behind and had the game tied at 7-7 at the break before Antoine Dupont came on and scored twice to help the Olympics hosts to complete the turnaround.
With French flags flying high, the electric home crowd was deafening as the final whistle was blown.
Fiji had won the two other men’s rugby sevens events at Olympics at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, but had to settle for silver this time.
South Africa won bronze earlier after defeating Australia 26-19.
Australia recovered from a 12-point deficit with only two minutes remaining to level, but Shaun Williams scorched over for South Africa to win and replicate their third place in Rio.
"Honestly, I don’t have words. A lot of people didn’t give us a chance. We only qualified for the Games by repêchage, and if someone had said then, ‘You will be standing on the podium at the end,’ I never would have believed them,” South Africa forward Ryan Oosthuizen said.
This is the third medal at the home Games for France after Luka Mkheidze took silver in the men’s judo 60-kilogram final and Shirine Boukli claimed their first medal, a bronze in the women’s judo 48-kg.