Two Olympic winners on the African champions’ way

Tunisia qualified to play at the London 2012 Olympic Games after successfully dethroning African giants Angola at last year's Afrobasket final with a 67-56 win, not only securing a first ever Olympic appearance for the North African country but also stealing the Afrobasket crown from their opponents for the first time since 1997 years and only the second time in two decades.

The new African champions main characteristic is consistency in the squad.

Since the 2005 Afrobasket held in Algeria, Marouan Kechrid , Radhouara Slimane , Amir Rzig , Mohamed Hadidane and Marouane Lagnej have been the most regular players, constituting a backbone that not only has heaps of experience, but that also blends together excellently.

The mastermind of Tunisia national team is head coach Adel Tlatli, who took the helm in 2001 and will lead the country at the Olympics.

The past three years have been a revolution within Tunisian basketball as the team collected bronze and gold medals in the two last Afrobaskets . Newcomers to the world stage, they also played at their first FIBA World Championship in 2010.

Unlike the 2009 Afrobasket staged in Libya where they finished third, Tunisia left last year’s tournament unbeaten in seven games, and in the final forced Angola to score their lowest points (56) at an African tournament.

Tunisia showed in Madagascar that one mistake need not be committed twice.

Two years prior to their historic African win, Tunisia were knocked out in the semi-final after 79-69 defeat to Angola.

However, last August coach Tlatli reminded his players of their chance of playing at an Olympic Basketball Tournament, and they responded with 60-57 victory over Ivory Coast in the semi-final.

At the 2010 FIBA World Championship Tunisia lost all their five games, but will have learned a lot. They bring this experience to them to the Olympics.

According to Tunisian seven-footer Salah Mejri , Tunisia will enter at the Olympics “to compete. And realistically, we expect to win one or two games.”

Upon securing a place at the London Olympic Games they gained worldwide admiration with their opponents acknowledging their potential and merit.

Looking at the future of the national team, coach Tlatli told fiba.com that he would name two youngsters - 19-year-old Omar Abada and 20-year-old Sofian M’Rad - among the list of player joining the national team for their Olympic preparations.

Both players represented the country at last year’s FIBA U19 World Championship staged in Latvia.

Despite prominent performances by Macram Ben Romdhane, and Salah Mejri, small forward Amine Rzig, one of the most experienced of the squad, remains the captain and leader of the group.

On 30 April, Tunisia were drawn in group A of the Olympics along Olympic champions USA , France and Argentina . Two more teams competing the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament will join the group.

Many consider them to have had the toughest draw possible. However, they will have several chances of pulling of what would count among the greatest upsets in the history of the tournament; something that will provide them with more than enough motivation as they travel to London.