Rugby fans were given a taste of what they can expect at the Olympics as France legend Antoine Dupont inspired his country to a Sevens World Series win in Madrid.

The French ran three tries past favourites Argentina to win the final 19-5, with Dupont laying on the decisive third score for Paulin Riva.

After waiting 19 years for a Sevens title, France have now won two of the five tournaments since Toulouse scrum-half Dupont joined the squad from the 15-a-side team.

“Antoine is the best player in the world, we think,” said Riva. “When he is on the pitch we have a lot of confidence and we are very happy tonight.

“We feel the Olympics arrived right now.”

Dupont, 27, is expected to be one of the faces of this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris and played a key role in his side’s Madrid success.

He scored a try and set up another as the French came from behind to beat Great Britain 17-12 after extra time in the group stages to reach the semi-finals.

And Dupont then came off the bench to inspire another comeback victory against Fiji in the last four, helping in the build-up of two second-half tries as they ran out 21-14 winners.

Argentina beat New Zealand by the same scoreline in the semis and in the final, Luciano Gonzalez went over in the corner to give the Pumas a 5-0 lead late in the first half.

But France responded with a superb breakaway try under the posts from Stephen Parez-Edo Martin just before half-time.

Dupont came on after the break with his side leading 7-5 and, after Jefferson-Lee Joseph had finished a flowing move to extend their advantage, he took out two defenders to lay a pass on a plate for Riva to seal the win.

After picking up the player of the tournament award, Dupont said: “I hope it [the Olympics] will be a huge tournament for us. Obviously we want to win but there are many other countries who want to win as well. We have two months now to work as hard as we can and hopefully we will be ready come July.”

The men’s sevens tournament gets under way at the Olympics in Paris on 24 July, with the women’s event starting on 28 July.

England’s Laurie Canter ended a 13-year wait for his first title on the DP World Tour with a two-shot victory in the European Open.

The 34-year-old from Bath had finished runner-up on six occasions before finally breaking his duck in Hamburg.

A one-under-par final round of 72 was enough to seal victory on 13 under, with Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger and South African Thriston Lawrence finishing in a tie for second.

“I’ll find that tough,” said a tearful Canter. “It’s all I’ve wanted to do since before I turned pro so it’s hard to rationalise now, but I’m really happy.”

Canter, who was one of the first wave of players to move to LIV Golf in 2022 but is now back playing on his home circuit, birdied the opening hole of his final round but a first victory looked in doubt after bogeys on five and 10.

He putted well on the back nine and opened a three-shot lead following birdies on the 11th, 15th and 16th, and could afford a dropped shot on the penultimate hole.

“It felt like I holed a lot of puts when I needed to today, which I haven’t done in the past,” said Canter.

“It is difficult when you are serially not getting it done, like a stigma, but I have always known in myself that I could win.”

Denmark’s Niklas Norgaard was well placed going into the final round but a one-over 74 saw him finish three shots back in a tie for fourth with France’s Julien Guerrier.

Britain’s Joe Salisbury and American partner Rajeev Ram claimed a routine win to reach the third round of the men’s doubles at the French Open.

The third seeds won 6-4 6-4 against Ecuador’s Gonzalo Escobar and Kazakhstan’s Aleksandr Nedovyesov.

Salisbury and Ram have won four Grand Slam titles together but have never gone beyond the quarter-finals in Paris.

They will face French duo Gregoire Barrere and Lucas Pouille, who defeated Britain’s Jamie Murray and New Zealand’s Michael Venus, next.

Murray and Venus, seeded 13th, squandered three set points in the second-set tie-break before home hopes Barrere and Pouille closed out a 6-4 7-6 (8-6) win.

Salisbury will be back in action later on Sunday alongside fellow Briton Heather Watson in the mixed doubles after rain played havoc with the schedule in Paris.

Meanwhile, Henry Patten and Finnish partner Harri Heliovaara triumphed 6-3 7-5 against Luke Johnson and Tunisia’s Skander Mansouri.

In the women’s doubles, Maia Lumsden and China’s Wang Yafan lost 6-3 7-5 to 16th seeds Miyu Kato of Japan and Ukraine’s Nadiia Kichenok.