Joe Apu
Nigeria’s men and women national basketball teams to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games have been designated to campaign for medals at the Saitama Arena.
The men’s competition is billed to tip off on July 25 and conclude on August 7, while the women’s tournament will begin one day later on July 26 and finish on August 8.
In both tournaments, the 12 teams are divided into three groups (A, B and C) of four teams each. This stage of the competition is played in a round robin format, with each team playing all other teams in its group (a total of three games for each team).
The teams placed first and second in each group and the two best third-placed teams in the Group Phase qualify for the Final Phase. The remaining four teams take no further part in the competition.
The announcement of Saitama was made by the International Olympic Committee yesterday with the 3×3 competition, to be held at the Aomi Urban Sports Venue, as the first to swing into action first, for both men and women, on July 24, and continue through July 28. This will be the first time that 3×3 is an Olympic discipline.
The Saitama Super Arena, which is the venue of the basketball games is the largest class multipurpose auditorium in Japan and is adjacent to the Saitama Shintoshin Station. The most remarkable feature of this Arena is the “Moving block”.
By moving a huge architectural block, which contains audience seats, concourse, toilets and others with a weight of 15,000 tons, this facility is able to change from “Stadium mode”, which accommodates a maximum of about 37,000 people, to the “Arena mode” which accommodates a maximum of about 19,000 people.