MINISTER of Youth and Sports Sunday Dare has tipped the country’s basketball teams, D’Tigers and D’Tigress, to excel in the men’s and women’s events at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The Nigerian teams are Africa’s only representatives at the Games in basketball, a sport Dare believes is on the rise.
The minister emphasised the importance of developing sports through private/public partnership while speaking at the final of the Dr & Mrs. D. K Olukoya Women’s Basketball Championship in Lagos on Sunday.
“Basketball is on the ascendancy in Nigeria and nothing confirms that more than the fact that the D’Tigress and the D’Tigers will be at the Olympics,” he said.
“This is another great basketball game and the fact that these young ones have exhibited so much skills and abundance of talents gives me hope that the future of basketball in Nigeria is very bright especially when you start from the grass roots.
“When you catch them young from 15,16,17,18 you will realise that the future of both male and female basketball is indeed very bright.”
Team Nigeria’s first batch to Tokyo will depart from the country on Monday, while the second batch will leave a week later.
The final batch will join them on 19 July, four days before the Games begin.
The minister assured that Team Nigeria was properly motivated to excel in Tokyo and will adhere strictly to Covid-19 protocols.
Table tennis star Aruna Quadri, who became the first African to reach the quarter-finals of the men’s singles event of his sport at the Rio Olympics in 2016, will captain Team Nigeria to the Games.
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