South Africa lead the World Rugby Sevens World Series standings heading into Hong Kong © Martin Seras Lima

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Rugby Sevens will make its Olympic debut on August, 6, 2016, the opening day of competition, after the Rio 2016 Organising Committee released the daily competition schedule to mark 500 days to go.

The Deodoro Sports Complex will host the 12-team men's and women's competitions from August 6-11, with two sessions per day as rugby players compete for an Olympic Games medal for the first time in 92 years. The women's tournament runs from April 6-8, with the men playing on the following three days.

The top four teams on the World Rugby Sevens World Series ladders at the end of the season qualify automatically for Rio.

South Africa lead the men's competition on 93 points, with New Zealand (88), Fiji (86) and Australia (71) completing the automatic qualification spots with four rounds to play. New Zealand lead the women's competition on 60 points from Australia (48), Canada (48) and France (38) with three rounds to play.

The men's series continues this weekend with the prestigious Hong Kong Sevens followed immediately by the Tokyo Sevens in Japan, while the women next play in Langford, Victoria, on April 18-19.

World Rugby President Bernard Lapasset said: "The announcement is a very exciting and important milestone for rugby fans around the world. It marks the moment when they can begin to plan their Rio 2016 experience in earnest.

"We have worked in close partnership with the IOC, the Rio 2016 Organising Committee and other stakeholders to ensure that we have the best-possible schedule for our players, which allows them to perform to the best of their abilities as they compete to be the first rugby medallists at the Olympic Games in 92 years."