Black Stallions camp opens in UK ahead Paris 2024 Olympics qualifiers

Black Stallions

The country’s men’s rugby national team (Black Stallions) will begin their final preparation for the Paris 2024 Olympics qualifying campaign in the United Kingdom today. The qualifiers start this weekend in Mauritius.

A Nigeria Rugby Football Federation (NRFF) delegation, led by Black Stallions’ General Manager, Azeez Ladipo and two domestic players, left Nigeria yesterday for England to join their overseas-based counterparts in preparation for the qualifiers.

Nigeria is pitted against Ghana, Burundi, and DR Congo and a top three finish will take the Black Stallions to the next phase of the series, which is the Africa Cup Sevens slated for Zimbabwe.

Nigeria will open its campaign against Ghana before meeting Burundi and DR Congo in their last Group A match of the qualifiers.

Black Stallions began their preparation for the Olympics  qualifiers in early May with the convergence of players based in the United Kingdom under Coach Temitope Okenla,

Newly-appointed Black Stallions’ coach, Steve Lewis, will lead the Nigerian team to Mauritius.

The bulk of the selected players are expected to go into a closed camp before travelling to Mauritius for the first phase of the qualifiers.

The Paris 2024 Olympics qualifying series will hold on June 24 and 25 with 12 countries competing for the available four slots for the Africa Cup Sevens tourney, which holds in Zimbabwe in September.

The participating countries are Mauritius, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Botswana, Cameroun, Algeria and Nigeria. Others are Burundi, Congo, Lesotho, Senegal and Egypt.

According to Ladipo, the 12 players, made up of two home-based and 10 overseas-based players, will be training in UK ahead of the qualifiers.

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