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The Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda have both withdrawn from the African edition of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament for Paris 2024.
Their absences were only communicated to FIBA a day before the beginning of the competition, in which Senegal beat host nation Nigeria 93-87 in Lagos.
Initially two groups of four teams were set to play for a place at the Olympic Qualifying Tournament proper which subsequently saw one team advance to the men’s competition at Paris 2024.
“FIBA was informed by the Basketball Federation of Democratic Republic of the Congo and by the Federation of Uganda Basketball Association of their decision not to travel to Nigeria to participate in the FIBA Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament 2023 scheduled to start on Monday, August 14,” read a FIBA statement, with a reason yet to be communicated by the two National Federations.
“FIBA will investigate and assess the matter to determine any potential disciplinary measures.
“As a result, the Group A of the FIBA Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament 2023 Nigeria will be played with three teams, Senegal, Mali and Nigeria.
“Group B will be played with three teams, Cameroon, Guinea and Tunisia.
“The teams from each group will play against each other in a single round-robin format.
“The top two teams of each group after the group phase will qualify for the final phase.”
It is the second late withdrawal from FIBA Pre-Olympic Qualifying tournaments in just a week.
The Chinese Taipei Basketball Association refused to participate in the Asian event in Syria due to safety concerns.
The event is taking place in Damascus and is due to end on August 20, like the Nigeria-hosted contest.
