MASSAGE therapists from a Bowness clinic have travelled to the Commonwealth Games to be part of the medical team.

Two massage practitioners from Mountain Massage Company, which opened in 2017, were selected to join the medical staff for the games from a field of thousands.

James Clark, who has been working at the Lee Valley Velodrome in London, retrained from a career in broadcast in order to relocate to the Lake District and open Mountain Massage Company.

James is a massage practitioner and will be working alongside physiotherapists and sports medicine doctors providing care for cyclists from any team as part of the Commonwealth Games' extensive medical team.

He working with the cyclists as part of the Commonwealth Games Medical Services at the Lee Valley Velodrome at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London and is currently in the thick of the action in the middle of the velodrome. 

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James runs Mountain Massage Company alongside his wife, Hazel Clark, offering sports massages, injury rehab, podiatry and Pilates. 

He will be joined by another of their therapists, Claire Wilson, who has been a therapist in the area for many years but has recently attained a Level Five Soft Tissue Therapy diploma and has been working with Mountain Massage Company since 2018.

Claire will be based at the Arena Birmingham with the gymnasts as part of the Medical Services team.

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Hazel said: "We wanted to raise standards and provide a high level of care and having experience at elite level is an important part of that.

"It is rare to have three Level Five massage practitioners, let alone three who will have all worked at elite level competition."

Hazel, who has previously worked at a Olympics, Commonwealth, and World Championships, encouraged James and Claire to apply for Birmingham 2022 while she had to decline her offer to keep the clinic open.

To get to work at the Commonwealth Games Medical Services they had to have the right qualifications then pass an application process and attend a face to face interview facing off against 22,000 others to fill 13,000 places across 300 roles.