Pius Ayinor
11 November 2008
Lagos — Togolese clubs Swallows and Racing became the first teams to hit Lagos for the FIBA Africa Zone 3 qualifiers when they arrived the National Stadium by 11pm Sunday. NPA Pythons of Liberia was the third team on ground and they touched down by 1am yesterday at the Murtala Muhammed Airport as the sides get set for actions to decide the teams that will make the final play off in Tunis, Tunisia from December 12 to 21.
The Benin Republic teams of Energie and ASPAC were at the National Stadium by 2pm yesterday to swell the number of teams already on ground to five. Also yesterday, the clubs from Cote d'Ivoire contacted the Nigerian Federation to announce their arrival time as today. Two clubs are billed to join the fray from the West African country but it was not certain as at press time if those from Ghana and Niger would still make the journey to Lagos.
The delayed arrival of the Ivoriens who were expected to be in Lagos latest yesterday has brought some confusion into the exact start off date of the competition. The President of FIBA Africa Zone 3 Muktar Khaleh explained that a decision would be taken later on all details of the competition.
"We expected all the teams to be here by today (Monday) which would have paved way for pre-match meeting and a quick start off by Tuesday. But as it is now this could bring some adjustments to the fixtures," Khaleh said.
The teams are joining Union Bank and Kano Pillars as the Nigerian teams in the event. Union Bank who finished as runners up to Pillars in the Nigerian league are hosting the competition under the auspices of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF). The competition will run through the weekend.
And for the female edition, First Bank became the only team to qualify from Nigeria with the end of the Zone 3 qualifiers by the weekend in Lome, Togo. They finished a surprising second behind ABC of Cote d'Ivoire while Nigeria's second entry Dolphins placed fourth. Only the top three teams qualified for the final stage billed for Nairobi, Kenya from the 20th to 29th of this month. Both teams played in Africa finals in Mozambique last year.
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