{"id":41946,"date":"2024-01-16T17:03:47","date_gmt":"2024-01-16T17:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/?p=41946"},"modified":"2024-01-16T16:06:43","modified_gmt":"2024-01-16T16:06:43","slug":"branch-maintains-second-spot-as-dakar-rally-nears-climax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/branch-maintains-second-spot-as-dakar-rally-nears-climax","title":{"rendered":"Branch maintains second spot as Dakar Rally nears climax"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Botswana. <\/strong><\/span><b>Botswana&#8217;s sensational rider Ross Branch maintained his grip on second position in the overall standings of the Dakar Rally 2024 after finishing eighth on stage eight held yesterday.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>This marked three days in second position for Branch as the race nears its conclusion on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, Ricky Brabec increased his lead to 42 seconds from the one second lead he held on stage seven. The American finished seventh yesterday as Argentinian, Kevin Benavides, bagged a stage win on the day.<\/p>\n<p>Branch is cautious in an effort to avoid any slip-ups as the race nears the finish line.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday was a long one and it was a little bit risky with the camel grass and the dunes. All in all it was a good stage. We lost a little bit of time, but it was nothing serious. We just tried to manage the whole stage to be in a good position for tomorrow (today). The bike is in a good state and I am feeling very strong and ready to go on,\u201d Branch told the Hero Motorsport media team after the race.<\/p>\n<p>A distance of 639km awaits Branch and his rivals in today\u2019s stage nine. The competitors will have to battle the windy and cold front as per the weather update in Ha&#8217;il, Saudi Arabia this morning. It is anticipated to be a difficult day for the competitors as the navigation could become complicated with the competitors having to guess where the tracks are rather than following them visually.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s terrain includes a rocky plateau which will require steadiness and technical skill to find the right pace. On a sad note, the Dakar Rally yesterday announced the death of Spanish rider Carles Falcon who suffered a heavy fall on stage two. He was treated by the medical team since the accident but succumbed to the injuries yesterday.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\">Botswana<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Botswana. Botswana&#8217;s sensational rider Ross Branch maintained his grip on second position in the overall standings of the Dakar Rally 2024 after finishing eighth on stage eight held yesterday. This marked three days in second position for Branch as the race nears its conclusion on Friday. On the other hand, Ricky Brabec increased [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":41944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17,244],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-41946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","category-to-homepage","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-botswana","tag-botswana"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Branch maintains second spot as Dakar Rally nears climax - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Botswana&#039;s sensational rider Ross Branch maintained his grip on second position in the overall standings of the Dakar ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/branch-maintains-second-spot-as-dakar-rally-nears-climax\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Branch maintains second spot as Dakar Rally nears climax\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Botswana&#039;s sensational rider Ross Branch maintained his grip on second position in the overall standings of the Dakar ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/branch-maintains-second-spot-as-dakar-rally-nears-climax\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Botswana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-01-16T17:03:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2024\/01\/sm_1705408529.380478.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"529\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/branch-maintains-second-spot-as-dakar-rally-nears-climax#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/branch-maintains-second-spot-as-dakar-rally-nears-climax\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Branch maintains second spot as Dakar Rally nears climax\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-16T17:03:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/branch-maintains-second-spot-as-dakar-rally-nears-climax\"},\"wordCount\":332,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/branch-maintains-second-spot-as-dakar-rally-nears-climax#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2024\/01\/sm_1705408529.380478.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Botswana\",\"Botswana\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\",\"to-homepage\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/branch-maintains-second-spot-as-dakar-rally-nears-climax#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/branch-maintains-second-spot-as-dakar-rally-nears-climax\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/branch-maintains-second-spot-as-dakar-rally-nears-climax\",\"name\":\"Branch maintains second spot as Dakar Rally nears climax - 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