Leemisa Thuseho
AFTER earning his Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) diploma in Organisation of Bicycle Events last week, Federation of Cycling Lesotho (FCL) president, Rammotang Makatile, promises to empower women and youth in cycling.
The course was held in Cairo, Egypt. The qualification makes Makatile the highest qualified cycling event organiser in the country.
Makatile has been pursuing the course since last December.
“I have just received my diploma in Organising Bicycle Events,” Makatile said.
“The course focused on organising risk free and successful cycling events.
“It also included strategic planning and sports administration among others. We really needed the course because now I know what kind of treatment suits a certain group of cyclists based on age and gender.
“One of the few things that I learnt is the importance of conducting risk assessments before the races to avoid unnecessary accidents.”
Makatile said the international cycling body is currently focusing on women and youth empowerment in cycling. Therefore, he said women and youth empowerment is one of his mandates after the course.
“The focus is now on empowering women and youth in the sport and the course taught us how to stage successful women and youth races.
“I believe the more we have women and youth races, the faster we increase the number of women in the sport. We also recruit more youths,” Makatile said.
Makatile said they have already requested donations of bicycles from UCI which will be strictly directed to empowering women.
“Fortunately, the request has been approved, so we are looking forward to receiving 15 bicycles from UCI and we are expecting them either this month or next month.
“The bicycles will be only used for women empowerment. We have also appointed a Commissioner of Women into our executive committee,” Makatile said.
He said the association’s mission was to capacitate its members from different departments with necessary skills.
“In order to have qualified and competent people in our sport, we will help and encourage our members from different departments to attend courses whenever there is one, especially women,” Makatile said.