New Zealand’s women’s rugby sevens team captured the gold medal on Saturday, beating France, 26-12.
Fiji beat Britain to capture the bronze medal. The U.S. women’s team, which had hoped to be in medal contention, lost to Australia, 17-7, and finished in sixth place, the same as the U.S. men’s side.
The gold medal game was tight at the start. The French matched an early try by New Zealand but missed the conversion to trail, 7-5. New Zealand added a try when Gayle Broughton dove headfirst over the end line just near the left flag, and it built a 19-5 lead just before halftime with another try and conversion.
The French narrowed the lead to 19-10 with a try 90 seconds into the second half. But New Zealand added another with under three minutes remaining to expand the lead again.
New Zealand won the silver medal at the Rio Games in 2016, the first Olympiad to include rugby sevens.