FIBA Ranking: D’Tigress rise to 14 after sealing Olympic ticket
Nigeria leaped three positions to occupy the 14th position the latest FIBA World Ranking for Women after clinching Olympic qualification in Belgrade, Serbia last Saturday.
The top-ranked African team topped continental rivals Mozambique and came close to forcing upsets against two Top 10 ranked teams in USA and Serbia.
The updated ranking presented by Nike saw USA maintain their status as the top-ranked country ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Women’s Olympic Basketball Tournament draw, with a number of teams using successful FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournaments to boost their positions.
Having booked their ticket to the Olympics at home in Ostend, Belgium (585.7) were the biggest winners as they jumped two spots into seventh place after registering wins over Japan and Sweden.
read also; FIBA Ranking: Nigeria’s D’Tigress leap to 19th place
Their rise came at the expense of Serbia and China, who lost a spot each despite seeing their overall ranking point tally increase as they too locked in Olympic berths. As the ranking considers the results from the past eight years, these changes are also in part to do with the gradually shifting weighting for previous years.