Tokyo Olympics: D’Tigress, D’Tigers begin medal quest with clashes against USA, Australia

NIGERIA’S D’Tigress will play their opening match at the women’s basketball event of the Tokyo Olympics against the world’s No.1 team United States of America.

According to the fixtures released on Tuesday by world governing body Federation of International Basketball Associations, the African champions will face the Americans on Tuesday, 27 July.

D’Tigress, who missed out on the last Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, narrowly lost to the USA at the 2020 Qualifying Tournament in Belgrade.

World No.5 France will be Nigeria’s second opponents on Friday, 30 July, before head coach Otis Hughley and his African queens go up against against hosts and world No.10 Japan in their final Group B game on Monday, 2 August.

In the men’s basketball event, D’Tigers will square up to Australia on 29 July in their first Group B clash at the Saitama Super Arena in Tokyo.

Apart from Australia, the 2015 AfroBasket champions and Africa’s top ranked team in will also play the yet-to-be-decided winners of the Olympics Qualifying Tournaments from Serbia and Belgrade between 29 June and 4  July.

The top two teams in each of the three groups and the two best losers will qualify for the quarter-finals.

They will be divided into Group D (best four teams) and Group E (remaining four teams). The quarter-final pairings for the men will be decided on 1 August with the women’s tournament draw taking place the following day.

Women’s quarter-finals will be on Wednesday, 4 August, before the semi-finals and the bronze medal game on Friday, 6  August and Saturday, 7  August respectively.

The men’s quarter-finals games will come up on 3 August and the semi-finals two days later.

The men’s final will be played on Saturday, 7 August while the women’s final will be on Sunday, 8  August.