Facing series leaders Australia, England and Fiji on day one of their first HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series tournament would be a daunting prospect for most teams, but not Colombia insists Estefanía Ramírez.

Ramírez knows it will be a huge challenge for her and the rest of the Colombian squad, but rather than be scared by what lies ahead on Friday she prefers to view the Atlanta Sevens as an opportunity to assess her side’s progress on the road to Rio 2016.

“We are very excited to be here and we want to see how the tournament goes,” insisted Ramírez. 

“It will be good to see the teams that we will probably meet at the Olympics, but we are focused on our work and what we have done in training and we hope to have a good tournament and to present a good impression of Colombia.

“We have been working hard the last three months together as a team in the same city. We have trained a lot because we wanted to grow, to get faster and fitter to be able to do a lot of running and to improve our technique.

“We have been training every day, two sessions a day, to improve and this tournament is like a test for us, to see how much we have improved on the back of all this work we have been doing over the last three months.

Have fun and learn

“We know that the other teams here in Atlanta are of a high level, but the purpose of us being here is to see how much we have grown, not to worry about the other teams. 

“It is not scary to play the likes of Australia, Fiji and England because we have to play our own game. 

“We have already played teams like Canada and USA in the Pan American Games so we know a bit of the level we will face. It is not scary, we are going to have fun and do what we have to and try to do our best as a team.”

Colombia secured their place at Rio 2016 last June when they upset favourites Argentina in the South American regional qualifier, scoring a try with 10 seconds remaining through Guadalupe López to spark wild celebrations at creating a piece of rugby history for their country.

There are now only 121 days to go until the women’s sevens teams take to the Deodoro Olympic Park, but 24-year-old Ramírez insists that Colombia they are not getting carried away with thoughts of Rio 2016.

“For now we are focused on Atlanta as this tournament gives us the chance to see what it will be like at the Olympics and the teams we may face. This tournament will help us have an idea of how to play against these teams.

“Then we can go home and make some changes and see what new strategies we need before Rio.”

Photo credit: Paulo Mumia