AFROBASKET - One win enough to keep Olympic dreams alive

ANTANANARIVO (Afrobasket) - Two of Africa's strongest and most talented teams saw their Olympic dreams end on Thursday as Cameroon and Senegal were knocked out in the Quarter Finals.

Now only four teams remain - Nigeria, Angola, Ivory Coast and Tunisia - and among them three will carry their hopes of playing at the London Olympics into 2012. The tournament winner obviously earns direct qualification, but the other two podium finishers qualify for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament - a 12 team tournament from which the top three obtain an Olympic ticket.

Bronze medal games can be tedious affairs, with disappointment the overwhelming emotion for both teams, but not so with an Olympic flame burning in the distance.

Nigeria, unbeaten team in this Championship, look strong all-round. On Thursday they survived their first tight game, after almost falling to a Central African Republic comeback. Limited adversity to date will mean they are probably the freshest of the four teams fighting for the title.

They face Angola, who have had their most eventful and troubled Afrobasket in a decade and who will go into this game with heavy legs following a nail-biting overtime win over Cameroon. They have overcome a first round defeat and the dismissal of their coach and re-established themselves at favourites.

The other unbeaten team is Tunisia, who have gone about their business clinically, with few people paying much attention to them. Coming off their first FIBA World Championship appearance last year in Turkey, the Tunisians have invaluable top level experience and are hungry for more.

Their opponents Ivory Coast are definitely on the up after sending Senegal home. Both the style of their win and the score-line suggest that the silver medallists of 2009 are among Africa's best. However, inconsistency is a major issue for the Ivoirians, whose defeat to Cameroon will have been easily put behind them, but whose seven point loss to Egypt exposed their fragility.

Whatever the result of tomorrow's Semis, all four teams will go into Sunday with plenty at stake. Come the night, all but the team that suffers successive defeats will go to bed dreaming of the Olympics.

FIBA