South Sudan made a winning start to their historic Group C campaign, beating Puerto Rico 90-79 at the Pierre Mauroy Stadium in Lille.
The victory came after the wrong national anthem was played for the African nation, a mistake that was branded ‘disrespectful’ by one South Sudan player.
The incorrect anthem was played for around 20 seconds, leaving the Sudanese players confused and prompting fans to boo and demand the track to be discontinued.
According to Fox News, one supporter even had to be physically restrained by fellow fans after the Sudan anthem was incorrectly played.
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 following a referendum and has its own distinct anthem. The neighbours have a long history of conflict.
Fans began to clap the South Sudan players as they stood with their hands over their hearts waiting for the issue to be fixed. The Puerto Rican players followed suit in solidarity.
The correct anthem was played around three minutes later and South Sudan star Nuni Omot admitted the team felt ‘disrespected’ by the mistake.
‘It gave us fuel to the fire,’ said Omot, who finished with 12 points. ‘Obviously, we felt disrespected when that happened.
‘We’ve got to still earn our respect. So, I feel like for us we’ve got to continue to show the world what we’re capable of. That was just a testament, people not respecting us still.’
South Sudan coach Royal Ivey added: ‘It’s the pride for their country. ‘South Sudan. ‘Sud’ means ‘the land of the Black.’
‘These guys wanted to play. Wanted to hear their anthem. They messed up on the anthem, but they got it correct.
‘We all make mistakes. I’m definitely going to put that in comments. But at the end of the day, these guys are brothers.’
The International Olympics Committee apologised to South Sudan’s Olympic team just 24 hours after being forced to say sorry for mistakenly introducing the South Korean team as North Korea during the opening ceremony in Paris.
‘We apologise wholeheartedly,’ IOC spokesman Mark Adams said during a press briefing Saturday.
‘An operational mistake was made. We can only apologise, in an evening of so many moving parts, that this mistake was made.’
The latest errors come after fans noticed the Olympic flag being unveiled upside down during Friday night’s ceremony in the French capital.
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