Nigeria’s women national basketball team, D’Tigress has been pitched against world and Olympic Champion, United States of America (USA), hosts Japan and European powerhouse France in Group B of the basketball event of the Tokyo Olympics.
D’Tigress who will be making their second appearance at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, are now under experienced coach Otis Hughley.
At the closed-door draw held at FIBA headquarters in Switzerland yesterday, the 12 women teams were drawn into three groups of four teams in each group.
D’Tigress will open their campaign in Tokyo against USA on July 27 while slug it out against France on July 30 and their last group match against Japan will hold on August 2.
In the men’s draw, D’Tigers are in Group B alongside Oceania champion Australia while the remaining two teams in the group will emerge from the final qualifiers taking place in Serbia and Croatia between June 29 and July 4.
Even amid COVID-19 pandemic, FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis is upbeat about a good tournament in Tokyo: “We are looking forward to enjoying the world’s best basketball players performing this coming July in the capital of Japan. FIBA is confident for the smooth delivery of the Olympic Basketball Tournaments based on the close partnership with the IOC and the TOCOG as well as on its own, proven operational capacity during the last seven months.
“Last October and November FIBA and its Regional Offices managed to have no less than 114 men’s and women’s national teams travel internationally and play safely in bio-secure hubs, performing approximately 12,000 PCR tests.”
