D’Tigers and D’Tigress: How Nigeria’s men and women’s basketball teams grabbed Tokyo 2020 Olympic tickets
It is a huge achievement that Nigeria’s men and women’s basketball teams grabbed Tokyo 2020 Olympic tickets. This achievement is made more beautiful as both Nigeria’s U-23 men’s football team and the Super Falcons failing to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics despite heavy investment by sponsors and the government in football.
In this article, we will take a look at how Nigeria’s women’s basketball team known as D’Tigress and the men’s basketball team known as D’Tigers qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
D’Tigress
Nigeria’s women’s basketball team D’Tigress picked up a ticket to the Olympic Games through the 2020 FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Serbia, Belgrade.
The 2020 FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament was held in February and D’Tigress were in Serbia, Belgrade.
D’Tigress beat Mozambique 85-51 in their group opener, lost 70-64 to Serbia in their second group game, and narrowly lost to reigning world and Olympic champions 76-71 in their final group game.
By being the best African team they picked up a ticket to the 2020 Olympic Games.
D’Tigers
Nigeria’s men’s basketball team D’Tigers picked up a ticket to the 2020 Olympic Games through the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China.
D’Tigers lost 82-77 to Russia in their group opener and lost their second group game 94-81 to Argentina, however, they beat SSouth Korea 108- 66, and beat Ivory Coast 83-66 and finally China 86-73.
Their record at the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China meant they finished as the top African side in the competition and booked their place at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
