Tragedy in French rugby: Raisuqe, silver medalist at the Games with Fiji, dies after being hit by a train

Fijian rugby player Josaia Raisuqe, a 30-year-old winger for Castres and a silver medallist in Rugby Seven at the 2024 Paris Olympics, died following a freak collision between his car and a train. The accident occurred in Saix, on the route between the player's home and his training ground: his car was at the level crossing when it was hit by the train. Firefighters who rushed to the scene after the accident evacuated the driver and a conductor from the train's cabin, who were in shock but unharmed. No passengers were injured.

Raisuqe had been at Castres since 2021, after experiences at Stade Francais (2015-2017) and Nevers (2017-2021). With the reigning French champion Stade in 2015, he was Sergio Parisse's teammate and coached by the current Italian coach Gonzalo Quesada: both remembered him on social media by posting a heartbreaking photo of Raisuqe wearing the Parisian club's shirt. In March, he signed a contract to play for Brive for the next two seasons. This year, he had made 7 appearances, the last against Toulouse a few weeks ago. At the Paris Games, he played with Fiji in the gold medal final, losing to the hosts France. Antoine Dupont himself, who was on the pitch in that match and captain of the French national XV team, remembered his opponent by posting a black and white photo of Raisuqe with a heart on his social media. “A boy, radiant on and off the pitch, a pillar of the Fijian community that we have in the club and to which we are very attached,” said Pierre-Yves Revol, coach of Castres. In fact, the team includes two other Fijians, second row Leone Nakarawa and centre Vilimoni Botitu. Obviously, the entire French rugby community is in shock. His club, Castres Olympique, is obviously “shocked by grief” at the loss of “a wonderful teammate, appreciated by all and adopted with love by the fans”. The Rugby League, in expressing “immense sadness” for the tragedy, immediately ordered the postponement of the match with Clermont scheduled for Saturday at 2:30 p.m., while on all other Top14 and ProD2 pitches, homage will be paid to the Fijian player.

The local gendarmerie, on the initiative of the Public Prosecutor Elodie Buguel, immediately opened an investigation to determine the causes of the accident. The collision occurred around 8 am between the car and a TER, a regional express train headed to Toulouse with 21 passengers on board. According to the Prosecutor's Office, Raisuqe had just left the sports center to go home where he had forgotten some things. According to initial reports, the car had passed the safety barriers and was then hit by the locomotive. Investigators then seized the train's black box and collected data to investigate the correct functioning of the level crossing, while alcohol and drug tests carried out on Raisuqe's body immediately came back negative.