Category: Sunday Standard

It has been a tough outing for Botswana’s Dakar Rally world rally raid championship (W2RC) defending champion, Ross Branch.

The Kalahari Ferrari, as the affable rider is affectionately called, crashed out during stage three of the fourth round. The crash, which left his motorcycle mangled, all but ended his title defense.

This marked an anticlimax for the Dakar Rally W2RC champion, who admitted his title defence had not gone according to plan. A series of setbacks hamper put paid his ambition to defend the title he won in 2024.

‘Unfortunately, I crashed out of the Rally. The year was not as good as I expected. We had issues the entire season and a bit of bad luck,’ Branch said. ‘But one has to move on and prepare for the coming races.’

While he is no longer in the title race, Branch is not ready to fold his arms and declare the season over. He is still determined he will go back and take part in stage five of the world championship in Portugal. His plan is to use the stage as a crucial testing ground for the 2026 Dakar Rally. His focus has shifted from defending his current title to preparing for a strong comeback.

‘We’ve had mechanical failures, even hit a bird in round three, and in round four things were going well – I was in the top five, exactly where we wanted to be. Unfortunately, I had a big crash, and that was the end of the race for me,’ he explained.

With no chance of clinching the world title this season, Branch sees the upcoming race in Morocco, the final round of the 2025 championship, as an opportunity to test new setups, sharpen his navigation, and rebuild his confidence.

‘Going into the last round, there’s no way of winning the championship, but we have a couple of things we’d like to test for Dakar in January,’ Branch said. ‘I’m feeling good, ready to battle the best in the world, get my confidence back, and hopefully gain more experience with navigation. That way, I’ll be fully prepared for Dakar.’

Despite the setbacks, the ‘Kalahari Ferrari’ remains optimistic. His focus is firmly on January, where he hopes to reclaim his crown and remind the world why he is one of the most fearless riders on the global rally scene.

In April 2024, court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) dismissed International Boxing Federation (IBA)’s appeal seeking to overturn a decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to strip it of its recognition.

The ruling marked the end of the road for IOC and IBA. That very same month, the newly formed World Boxing (WB) was publicly announced. This new entity was to take over from IBA as the custodian of Olympic style boxing.

This new shift left many African in a tricky situation. At the time, it seemed they had to make a decision whether to stay with IBA or jump ship to the newly formed WB. This left many national boxing federations, more especially those in Africa, caught between a rock and a hard place.

Not joining WB would mean exclusion from participating in the future Olympic games, the games which, for many amateur boxers, are the pinnacle of achievement. For some like Botswana Boxing Association (BoBA), this would mean loss of sports grants from the government and support from organisations such as IOC.

Ditching IBA, on the other hand, would mean they lose whatever benefits they get. These would include missing out on IBA organised competitions, which still dominate the continent. It would also mean missing out on IBA projects meant to develop the sport of boxing.

Only Nigeria, among the African countries, was brave enough to jump ship and join WB. Botswana, on the other hand, decided to bide its time. They adopted a wait and see strategy, choosing to ‘monitor the events as they unfold.’

Speaking to this publication at the time, the then BoBA Secretary General Taolo Tlouestile had this to say: ‘We still do not know what the new body is coming with and even though IBA has been stripped of recognition it still has control over boxing training courses and many related boxing activities. What if we rush to the new body and find out that those things are limited and not being offered as IBA did.’

Fast forward a year later, sixteen African countries have now joined WB. The latest to join, albeit pending ratification, were the Libyan Boxing Federation (Libya) and the Boxing Federation of Kenya. As per the WB constitution, the two will have to wait until the WB congress in November 2025 to be granted full membership, as only the congress can approve it.

Now, Botswana is about to enter the ring as well. According to BoBA Publicity Secretary Kabelo Seleka, the association ‘is on the verge of joining World Boxing Organisation.’

He says ‘BoBA’s initial application for World Boxing membership was made by its immediate past Executive Committee.’ The membership application, which included submission of required documents has been accepted.

‘BoBA has met set requirements but with pending additional information submission. Most the requirements are centred around governance, membership, reporting, impact, compliance background,’ Seleka explains.

Of note, BoBA will join World Boxing without sacrificing its membership to IBA. The latter is said to have ‘long granted BoBA permission to go ahead with dual membership application by the International Boxing Association (IBA).’

Seleka says ‘the decision to join World Boxing has been reached with major focus on athletes’ interest, more especially participation in major recognised games such as the upcoming Olympics.’

Meanwhile, the BoBA Publicity Secretary says they expect more countries from the region to also join World Boxing as well. He says ‘most Southern Africa countries are in process of joining the World Boxing and or some might be awaiting to follow first movers in the region, who include BOBA.’

The new developments mean BoBA’s earlier decision to adopt ‘a wait and see strategy’ and to ‘monitor the events as they unfold’ has paid dividends. The association can now enjoy the benefits accrued from the two amateur boxing bodies without sacrificing one for another.