By Abiola Olawale
The Head coach of Nigeria’s senior women’s basketball team, Rena Wakama, has won the award of the Best Female Basketball Coach at the just concluded Paris 2024 Olympics tournament.
The announcement was made in a social media post by the International Basketball Federation on Sunday.
In a post on X formerly known as Twitter, the federation said: “Best coach of #Paris2024 Women’s Basketball, Rene Wakama, Nigeria.”
The New Diplomat reports that Wakama has been drawing praise after guiding Nigeria’s women’s basketball team to their first-ever quarterfinals at the Olympics.
Against all expectations, D’Tigress beat a third-ranked team in the world, Australia, 75- 62, in their opening game.
Though they lost to the host team, France, ranked seventh, 54-75, they rallied to beat fifth-ranked Canada 79-70 in their group final game to qualify for the quarterfinal and become the first African team men and women- to achieve such a feat.
However, the D’Tigress would later bow out to the USA in the quarterfinal.
Also, D’Tigress’ point guard and three-time Afrobasket champion, Ezinne Kalu, was named one of the All-Second Team of the Olympics Women’s Basketball.
Others on the list include Julie Vanloo (Belgium), Satou Sabally (Germany), Valeriane Ayayi (France) and Ezi Magbegor (Australia).
The MVP of the Women’s Basketball event, according to FIBA, was A’ja Wilson, while Jade Melbourne (Australia) won the Rising Star award.
The Best Defensive Player award was given to Gabby Williams.
