Izuchukwu OkosiNigeria’s women’s basketball national team D’Tigress will had been pitted with hosts France, Canada and Australia in Group B of the basketball tournament of the 2024 Olympics, Prime Business Africa reports.
The draw ceremony was held under the supervision of Federation of International Basketball Association (FIBA) President, Sheikh Saud Ali Al Thani and Secretary General of FIBA, Andreas Zagklis as well as officials from the participating countries.
The 2024 Olympics marks Nigeria’s third appearance in the women’s basketball tournament after their participations at the Athens 2004 and Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The team coached by USA-based Rema Wakama booked their passage to the Olympics after the qualification series in Antwerp, Belgium.
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The African champions Nigeria made it through despite the defeat in the last qualifiers against USA after wins against Senegal but got the rub of the greens as the Yankees had already gotten their qualification ticket as winners of the 2023 FIBA World Cup.
The men’s national team, D’Tigers failed to qualify for the Olympics and were not in the ballot for the Olympics draw.
Australia, Greece, Spain and Canada are pooled in Group A of the men’s section.
Group B consists of France, Germany, Japan and Latvia while Group C consists of South Sudan (African representatives), USA, Puerto Rico and Serbia.
The basketball events of the Olympics will hold between July 27 and August 11.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
