TORONTO (CIS) – Canadian Interuniversity Sport announced Tuesday the 12 student-athletes who will represent Canada at the 7th FISU world university rugby 7's championship. The event will be staged in Swansea, United Kingdom, July 7-9.

Official website: http://wucrugby2016.com/ 
FISU website: www.fisu.net/en
Looking to defend its gold medal from the 2014 event, the Canadian roster is headlined by McMaster's Ashley Gordon (Brampton, Ont.). A CIS champion last season, Gordon has experience on the international stage, winning silver at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China along with UVic's Pam Buisa (Gatineau, Que.), who will also be making the trip.

Joining Gordon and Buisa are four other CIS medalists from the 2015 season, including Emma Chown (Barrie, Ont.) of Queen's, and University of Ottawa teammates Sam Alli (Caledon, Ont.),Dria Bennett (Ottawa, Ont.) and Irene Patrinos (Mississauga, Ont.), who was named a first-team all-Canadian. The team also consists of UVic's Nakisa Levale (Abbotsford, B.C.), UBC's Ciara Malone (Vancouver, B.C.), Montreal's Arielle Normandin-Leclerc (Montreal, Que.), Guelph'sJulia Schell (Uxbride, Ont.), Erika Scott (Dewitville, Que.) of Bishop's and Christina Branch(Oshawa, Ont.) of Humber College. Internationally, Branch and Schell represented Canada at the 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games, where they finished second at the event.

Guelph's Cory Hector is the team's leader. He will be accompanied on the sidelines by Ottawa bench boss Jen Boyd, who will serve as the team's coach after leading the Gee Gees to a CIS bronze medal this past season. Both  have donned the maple leaf in recent years: Hector was an assistant coach at the 2012 FISU world university championship, while Boyd, a CIS coach of the year in 2014, heads into her second season as head coach of the Canadian U20 women's rugby 7's program.

Victoria's Jessica Smith rounds out the group as the team's medical staff.

"Playing in a tournament such as FISU, on the world stage versus world class competition, is key to building future Olympians," Boyd said. "The preparation cycle towards Tokyo 2020 has begun and Canada's sevens coaching staff expects several of these FISU athletes to put their hand up to play in the next Olympics. 

"We are a strong mix of carded athletes and those athletes who have made a real impact in the CIS. We have world-class speed and will compete defensively."
 
CANADIAN ROSTER  

Name                        University       Eligibility*      Hometown           Academics
Sam Alli                    Ottawa              2                    Caledon, Ont       Health Science

Dria Bennett               Ottawa             5                     Ottawa, Ont.        Science

Christina Branch         Humber            N/A                 Oshawa, Ont.       Fitness & Health

Pam Buisa                 Victoria             2                      Gatineau, Que.    Social Science

Emma Chown            Queen's            3                      Barrie, Ont.         Arts & Science

Ashley Gordon           McMaster         2                      Brampton, Ont.    Science

Nakisa Levale            Victoria            1                      Abbotsford, B.C.  Humanities

Ciara Malone             UBC                3                      Vancouver, B.C.   Arts

Arielle                                                                        

Normandin-Leclerc     Montreal          3                      Montreal, Que.      Kinesiology

Irene Patrinos              Ottawa            5                      Mississauga, Ont.  Science

Julia Schell                  Guelph            1                     Uxbridge, Ont.      Arts

Erika Scott                  Bishop's          1                      Dewitville, Que.    Education

Team Leader: Cory Hector (University of Guelph)
Coach: Jen Boyd (University of Ottawa)
Medical Staff: Jessica Smith (University of Victoria)

* Year of eligibility during CIS 2015 rugby season