Sanni Reunites With Nigerian National Team

West Virginia University senior center Olayinka Sanni has been selected to compete with the Nigerian National Team this month in Dakar, Senegal, Sept. 21-30, as the squad attempts to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

Sanni, a Chicago Heights, Ill., native, is currently training with Nigerians in Abuja, Nigeria, the nation’s capital. She departed the United States this past Saturday and will work out with her team through September 19. The Nigerians, in group B, open Olympic qualification against Cameroon, Sept. 21, in Dakar. The squad will then play Angola, Sept. 22. The squad will play a total of five games, including contests against Congo, Cape Verde and Kenya.

“This is a great opportunity for Yinka,” WVU head coach Mike Carey said. “Nigeria has a great opportunity to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This will certainly keep her in basketball shape for her senior season here at WVU.”

This is Sanni’s third appearance on the Nigerian National Team; she competed for the squad two summer’s ago at the World Basketball Championships in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 2006, and most recently played for the Nigerians at the All-African Games this past summer, guiding the squad to a silver medal. Sanni’s parents are both natives of Nigeria, which fulfilled the requirement needed to be on the team.