Two-time Olympic gold medalist Jerry Tuwai will not be Fiji’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games this weekend.

This has been confirmed to FBC Sports in Paris this morning by Team Fiji Men’s 7s coach Osea Kolinisau.

Kolinisau says the opening ceremony clashes with their schedule.

“Right now we won’t be part of the opening ceremony because that is a rest day, if you don’t know we play Wednesday and Thursday, Friday opening day there is no game for us it’s an active recovery day and then the finals is on Saturday so we’ve decided we are going to focus on our game and just rest properly on Friday and go to the games on Saturday.”

In Tokyo three years ago, there were hopes that Tuwai would lead Team Fiji out but the team decided to concentrate on their games.

With the Men’s 7s out of the ceremony, there’s a possibility one of the Fijiana bronze medalists from Japan will get the nod.

Rugby 7s players have been flag bearers at the last two Olympic Games opening ceremony.

In 2016 it was Osea Kolinisau in Brazil and Rusila Nagasau with swimmer Taichi Vakasama at the 2020 Games in Tokyo.

The Men’s team will play Uruguay at 3:30am on Thursday followed by USA at 6:30am then France at 1:30am on Friday.