Nigeria’s Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, has poured encomiums on the country’s senior women basketball team, D’Tigress, for their triumph at the just-concluded Women’s Afrobasket championship in Cameroon, IgbereTV reports.
The Nigerian ladies captured their third consecutive Afrobasket title on Sunday after beating Mali by 70-59 in the final of the competition held in Yaounde.
The performance of D’Tigress was dominant all through the championship which saw them repeat their 2017 and 2019 feats, to remain unbeaten for four years on the continent.
An elated Sports Dare said the Otis Hughley girl’s victory was a confirmation of Nigeria’s dominance of women basketball in Africa.
“Clearly now Nigeria’s dominance of the sport is indisputable. This is the evidence that Nigeria’s women basketball can be ranked as a World class programme. We have to sustain this momentum. This is remarkable,” Dare said.
“I salute the team (D’Tigress) for their professional commitment and execution. They have done the nation proud and maintained the positive results we have achieved in sports in the last few weeks.”
In the last ten weeks, Nigeria has had a lot to cheer in international sports competitions, winning nineteen medals from the Olympics, Paralympics and the World U20 Athletics Championships, and now capturing gold for the third consecutive time in the Women’s Afrobasket Championship.
Meanwhile, the team are back in the country on Monday morning although only three members of the team returned with the flight from Yaounde, led back by the NBBF vice president Babs Ogunade and Col Sam Ahmedu (retd) of the NBBF and FIBA Africa.
D’Tigress captain Adaora Elonu explained why the rest of the team couldn’t return to Nigeria.
“The timing is very challenging; it was not the best time of the season for many of us and that’s why some of our players couldn’t be in camp.
“It is the start of season for clubs and schools,” Elonu said as she waited for her flight back to Russia.
D’Tigress now have five Afrobasket titles, and a second to Senegal on the continent, who have 11 titles.
