Motocross team settles for 7th at African champs
Kabelo Boranabi | Monday September 7, 2026 06:00
The local 11-rider team competed at Gallina Motocross Park from August 28 to 30, finishing behind South Africa, Namibia, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Zambia.
South Africa dominated with 279 points, followed by hosts Namibia on 135 and Uganda on 125. Zimbabwe collected 95 points, Kenya 90 and Zambia 51.
The result was a step backwards from last year’s fifth-place finish in 2025, when the team scored 159 points at Donnybrook in Zimbabwe.
That campaign produced Botswana’s strongest recent showing, with Ross Branch winning the Veterans class and the MX Lites trio of Lourens Erasmus, Tommy-Jayden Wotherspoon, and Adam Meyer securing team silver.
This year’s smaller squad faced a tougher assignment, with Team Botswana fielding 11 riders across the classes.
Captain Bradley Pieterse competed in Veterans, whilst Kosmas Mamaloukos lined up in MX2. Radikolo Linchwe, Tristen Moutlaotse, and Kazz Gouveia represented the country in MX125, with Casey van Niekerk and Shawn Hughes in MX50.
The MX Lites challenge was carried by Erasmus, Adam Meyer, and Tazha Geofrey, whilst Elang Chibana was Team Botswana’s only female rider in the Women’s MX class.
The seventh-place finish continues a pattern of fluctuating fortunes since the championship returned after the COVID-19 interruption. Botswana finished fifth in 2022, collecting 37 points, before dropping to seventh in 2023 with 82 points.
The 2024 championship in Marrakech produced another difficult campaign before last year’s significant improvement.
Yet the local team’s wider MXoAN record remains respectable. The team’s best finish is fourth, achieved when it hosted the championship at Mmamashia in 2017.
That result followed fifth place in 2016 and was followed by fifth-place finishes in both 2018 and 2019. The 2017 fourth-place finish remains Team Botswana’s benchmark more than a decade into its MXoAN journey.
There have also been notable individual performances. Mamaloukos won MX85 bronze in 2016 and finished fifth for Botswana in 2018, whilst Branch remains the country’s most decorated MXoAN rider.
He won the African championship in 2015 and 2016 and returned to the national team in 2025 after a seven-year absence.