The Nigerian senior female basketball team, D’Tigress, on Wednesday, crashed out of the ongoing Olympic games in Paris.
D’Tigress lost 74-88 to the USA, bringing to end a spirited run that saw the team break several records.
The US ladies won three of the quarters to storm into the semi-finals of the Olympics, while D’Tigress won the last quarter 26-12.
The Nigerian side came out stronger in the fourth quarter, pegging the US ladies to the back.
The Nigerian women had made history after beating fifth ranked Canada to reach the quarter-finals.
The victory ensured that Nigeria reached the basketball quarter-finals for the first time ever against a Canadian team ranked 5th in the world.
Earlier, the team had subdued world number three Australia in their first group game.
Nigeria is yet to win a single medal in the game which ends on Sunday.
All eyes are now on Tobi Amusan, Nigerian track and field athlete who specialises in the 100 metres hurdles and also competes as a sprinter.
Amusan, current world record holder in the 100 metres hurdles with a time of 12.12 seconds which she set at the 2022 women’s 100 metres hurdles semi final in Eugene Oregon, has just qualified for semi-finals of the Women’s 100m Hurdles at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
On Wednesday morning, she won her heat with a time of 12.49 seconds in her third consecutive Semi-Finals at the Olympics.
Former Super Eagles Coach, Adegboye Onigbinde, on Tuesday took a swipe at Nigeria’s performance in the game attributing it to lack of good sports administration in the country.
“You see, why Nigerian athletes are not performing well in the ongoing Olympics and other international sports competitions is not technical, but administrative.
“Is it technical that an athlete who qualified properly in her event will be ridiculed by not registering her for participation?
“Situations like this will continue if our administrators don’t separate politics from sports,” the veteran technical sports director said.
According to him, most of the administrators have forgotten the core objective of developmental programmes in sports which had earned the country some measure of success.”
