Olympics bound D’Tigress moved up three places in the latest FIBA ranking following an impressive Olympic qualifiers in Serbia at the weekend which saw them register their name as the only African team who will be participating at the 2020 summer Olympics in Tokyo.
After successfully defending their Afrobasket title which they won in 2017 by beating hosts, Senegal in the final, D’Tigress was one of two African teams who made it from the Olympic pre-qualifying tournament into the just concluded qualifiers in Belgrade, Serbia.
The Nigerian team then defeated Mozambique by 34 points and was close to upsetting hosts, Serbia who are also the current Olympic and 2019 Eurobasket bronze medallists. Nigeria lost to them by 6 points and also to the world champions by 5 points after dominating and leading for over 30 minutes in the game.
Having said all these, there is no doubt that D’Tigress have rightfully earned their position as the 14th best team in the world as they look to spring up more surprises in Tokyo.
At the top, the first six teams remain unchanged with the US women”s basketball team maintaining top spot followed by Australia, Spain, Canada, France and Turkey.
As expected, in Africa, Nigeria remains number 1 while Senegal are second and remain unchanged in the world ranking. Mozambique on the otherhand have made a huge leap jumping seven places into 36th in the world and third in Africa.
