The Namibia Kickboxing Federation hosted the third edition of their mixed martial arts championship, “Desert Storm”in Walvisbay this past weekend. The two-day event saw students competing in different types of martial arts in various age and gender groups. Countries that took part in the championships are Namibia, South Africa, Angola, Brazil, Botswana, Ghana, Germany, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Desert Storm III also served as national trials for Namibian athletes to qualify for international events and World Championships in the near future. The Namibia Kickboxing Federation aims to send as many athletes as possible to competitions to expose them and give each student the opportunity to participate in a variety of social events. Day one of the championships saw students competing in self-defence, Jiu-Jitsu, MMA sport, Kata Series, and the fitness challenges. Saturday, day two of the championships saw kickboxing taking centre stage with point sparring, continuous sparring, semi-contact and K1 and full contact fights as the main events. The title fights and the Sub-Sahara title bouts were sanctioned by the World Association of Kickboxing Organisations and the Region 5 Kickboxing Confederation. Local fighter Delano Muller , who made history in June when he became the first Namibian to win a world title belt in the featherweight division in the USA at the Battle of Atlanta, once again impressed on the night. He retained his Sub-Sahara title, by beating Kyain Mupachike from Zimbabwe in the first round by TKO. Lesly !Hoaeb also retained his Sub-Sahara title by beating Stanford Gopole from Zimbabwe in the second round, also by a TKO. This is the third year during which the two local kickboxers won the Sub-Sahara title. The President of the South African Sports Commission and Olympic Committee, Gideon Sam after the event, said that events like Desert Storm are very important for the sport as many students from Africa cannot compete overseas in bigger competitions. “Why don’t we have events like this? Make it really big and they are attracted to come here to fight. We will make a case with the heads of world Kickboxing to make this event a premier event that can be taken forward. I can say that number three was a great event and come five, this will be one of the biggest” Sam said. The fourth edition of the championships will be held in September of next year.