Seven African cycling physiotherapists are keen on replicating what they learnt at the recently concluded goniometry course held at the Africa Rising Cycling Center (ARCC) in Musanze.

Jonathan Golden, a college student at Georgia College in Milledgeville, USA, who is an exercise science major and certified as a Wilderness First Responder and national Mountain Bike Patroller taught the class that comprised of the head masseur of Team Rwanda Cycling Obed Ruvogera and Rockie, four Ethiopians Getnet Debrtsion, Tsegay Netsereab, Ephrem Gebremedhin and Teklehaimanot as well as Eritrean, Selman Hamde.

Organized by ARCC head of logistics and marketing Kimberly Coats, the two-week course focused on goniometry (range of motion assessment), postural assessments, FMS, stretching, taping, massage, yoga, nutrition and First Aid.

Ruvogera, a former cyclist with Team Rwanda said, "This course was very helpful to us and we have increased our knowledge in many aspects. I am looking forward to transferring what I learnt to the riders because this will make us an even better team.”

His counterpart Hamde who is the physiotherapist on the Eritrean national team, echoed his line of thought, "It was an interesting course and I learnt very many things for instance, we learnt so much about first aid which is very important before someone is taken to the hospital.”

In an exclusive interview with Times Sport, Golden said, "Yoga is extremely important to a cyclist because while cycling, you are constantly leaning forward and constantly putting stress on your lower back so yoga does a lot of exercises like the bridge that reverses the forward stress. Stretching targets one muscle at a time while yoga will target the whole body.”

The course organizer, Coats said, "We organized this course to essentially train trainers, the people that are within the cycling business of massage for people who can go to races and better handle athlete injuries, prevent injuries and in this class what they did was they did assessments on athletes to find their range of motion, to hopefully prevent injuries.

"It is a way that we are trying to develop all aspects of cycling, not just the cyclists but all the people that are responsible for the care of the athletes,” she explained.

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