2009 European Sevens Championship

European rugby tournament 11 July 12 July GER 13 Men: RUS Women: ENG Men: FRA Women: ESP 2008 2010 The 2009 European Sevens Championship was a rugby sevens competition, with the final held in Hanover, Germany. It was the eighth edition of the European Sevens championship and was organised by rugby's European governing body, the FIRA – Association of European Rugby (FIRA-AER).The 7s European Championship Hannover Sevens website, accessed: 4 June 2010 The tournament differed from the previous seasons event as the number of participating men's teams had been reduced from twelve to ten. Instead, a women's tournament was held alongside the men's, also consisting of ten teams. The men's tournament was won by Russia, while England took out the women's title. Tournament history From 2002, FIRA, the governing body of European rugby, has been organising an annual European Sevens Championship tournament. A number of qualifying tournaments lead up to a finals tournament, which functions as the European championship and, in 2008, also as the qualifying stage for the Sevens World Cup. The first European Championship was held in 2002 in Heidelberg, Germany, and was won by Portugal, the team that won every men's championship since except 2007 and 2009, when Russia won. In 2003, the tournament was again held in Heidelberg and, in 2004, Palma de Mallorca, Spain was the host. From 2005 to 2007, Moscow was the host of the tournament. Hanover held the tournament for the first time in 2008 and did so again in 2009. In 2010, the tournament will return to Moscow. Finals stadium The 2008 and 2009 finals tournaments were held at the AWD-Arena in Hanover, home ground of the football club Hannover 96. The stadium holds 50.000 spectators, 43,000 of them on seats, the rest standing.AWD-Arena - facts Hannover Sevens website - stadium information, accessed: 4 June 2010 Qualifying A qualifying competition was held for the men's teams, with points allocated according to final placings in each tournament. Each nation was required to play two qualifying tournaments.Qualifiers for the Hannover Sevens 2009 Hannover Sevens website, accessed: 4 June 2010 Ten teams qualified through the six qualifying tournaments, held at the following locations: LocationCountryDateWinnerRunner-up Sopot Poland 16–17 May POR POL Athens Greece 23–24 May FRA ROM Split Croatia 30–31 May FRA ITA Odesa Ukraine 6–7 June RUS Moldova Ostrava Czech Republic 6–7 June POR ESP Moscow Russia 20–21 June ITA Moldova Final standings These are the final standings of the tournament: PlaceMenWomen 1st RUS ENG 2nd FRA ESP 3rd ITA NED 4th ESP GER 5th Georgia FRA 6th Moldova POR 7th POR RUS 8th ROM ITA 9th GER SWE 10th POL Moldova References External links Hannover sevens website en fr de FIRA-AER official website 2009 Category:International rugby union competitions hosted by Germany European Category:2009–10 in European rugby union Category:2009–10 in German rugby union Category:July 2009 sports events in Germany Category:Rugby union in Hanover