Nairobi — Shujaa stunned South Africa's Blitzbokke 17-12 in Zimbabwe on Sunday evening to clinch the Africa Sevens title, and claim Africa's sole ticket to the 2024 Olympic Games.

Shujaa, who went in to the tournament they last won in 2019 with a new group of players and a technical bench put in a stellar performance, to stun the South African side, Patrick Odongo scoring two tries.

"We had a dream, we worked hard to achieve it and I am so happy that we have achieved it. I am so happy for the boys and this is coming big just after we were relegated last season. Grinding like this shows what we can do as a country and we want to go back to the HSBC circuit next season and prove that we can still play at the top level," an elated Kevin Wambua, the Shujaa coach, said as he struggled to hold his breath from the excitement.

Co captain Tony Omondi added; "This means everything to us. We are rebuilding and we came here with six rookies. This performance is motivation enough to get through to the next stage."

Shujaa held on after the buzzer when South Africa won possession, and when the Boks knocked on as they went for the try line, the Kenyan boys kicked out to clinch victory and the ticket to Paris.

Shujaa had a good start to the game and within two minutes had dotted down the opening try when Odongo crossed over on the right under the posts. Tony Omondi stepped up for the extras and made no mistake to give Kenya a 7-0 lead.

But, South Africa responded immediately when Angelo Davids ran down for a try after some quick shuffle of legs in midfield created a pocket of space for him to sneak through.

Johan Grobbelaar then added the second try for South Africa, which was converted, after also exploiting the tiniest of space in the Shujaa backline, giving them a 12-7 lead at the break.

But Shujaa came back strong and levelled matters when Okoth touched down on the left after some patient build up from a scrum, Vincent Onyala offloading the ball for the big man to cross over the chalk.

Another simple and basic play from Shujaa saw them run in the third try of the game, Okoth touching down after the ball was swung to his direction and he evaded last ditch tackles.

While Shujaa qualify for Paris, South Africa and Uganda, who finished third, will play in the repechage tournament.