Nigeria’s national women’s basketball team, D’Tigress, Africa’s sole representatives in the basketball event at the Paris 2024 Olympics have been paired in Group B alongside Australia, Canada and France, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
The draw took place on Tuesday at the Patrick Baumann House of Basketball in Mies, Switzerland and was overseen by basketball icons Penny Taylor and NBA legend Carmelo Anthony.
According to world body FIBA, the women’s Olympic basketball tournament draw principles were determined by the world rankings, along with geographical considerations.
The 12 teams were divided into four pots. Each group consisted of a minimum of one and a maximum of two teams from Europe, while Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania each have no more than one team per continent in each group.
African champions D’Tigress, who are poised for a consecutive appearance after participating in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, were seeded in Pot 4 alongside Puerto Rico and Germany.
Reigning world champions United States are drawn in Group C against Germany, Japan and Belgium.
Group A has Serbia, Spain, China and Puerto Rico.
The first two teams in each group qualify automatically for the quarter-finals of the tournament while the best two third-place teams also stand a chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals.
The Basketball event at the Paris 2024 Olympics holds at the Decathlon Arena – Stade Pierre Mauroy in Lille.
The Women’s Olympic Basketball Tournament is scheduled from July 29 to August 11.
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