Olympics Day Three: D’Tigress face Australia as Bello competes in table tennis

D’Tigress of Nigeria will face Australia in their first match at the 2024 Paris Olympics. 

The Rena Wakama side will seek to get the country’s first-ever non-classification victory in the women’s basketball event of the Olympics against the Australians.

D’Tigress have registered just a win at the Olympics despite qualifying twice before.

In Athens 2004, they defeated South Korea in an inconsequential classification game after crashing out. They had lost all five games and conceded over 400 points in their group. The team ended up finishing 11th out of 12 teams in the competition.

At the Tokyo Olympics, they were defeated 87-62 by France in their first game and lost 81-72 to the US in their second game before a 102-83 loss to Japan in the last fixture.

The match against Australia is scheduled for 10 am at the Pierre Mauroy Stadium.

Fatimo Bello is the country’s only remaining contender in table tennis after the disastrous outing of Aruna Quadri, Olajide Omotayo, and Edem Offiong.

All other Nigerian table tennis players crashed out of the Olympics in the first round.

Bello will be to hold the fort and impress in her first-ever Olympics appearance.

She takes France’s Jia Yuan by 9 am.

BELOW IS THE SCHEDULE FOR TEAM NIGERIA FOR DAY THREE

Table Tennis

Fatimo Bello (Nigeria) vs Jia Yuan (France)

Women’s singles round of 64

Time: 9 am

Basketball

D’Tigress vs Australia

Group B of women’s basketball

Time: 10 am