Ekaterina arrives.

Pretty Russian gymnastics choreographer, Ekaterina Kalinina, arrived and will spend the next month at Golden Lions Gymnastics in Newlands, Johannesburg, assisting South African champions Matome Tshishonga, Natalie Friesling and the other top gymnasts composing new routines for them.

“I am so excited to be here. The past few days were hectic as my club competed in Novgorod. I spent a day in icy St Petersburg and also spent overnight in Moscow before I left for Johannesburg,” she said on her arrival.

She says she is excited to be able to work with African gymnasts and was impressed with DVDs she saw of their routines.

“I do not intend to change them to look like European acro gymnasts, because from what I saw, they are uniquely different and should stay that way,” she says.

Kalinina will work with Golden Lions Gymnastics head coach, Natalia von Willig, a former Belarus and European medalist.

Other acro clubs have requested Kalinina for assistance and she is set for a busy month.

South Africa’s top women’s artistic gymnastics coach, Ilse Laing, also requested the 24 year-old Russian to assist some of her gymnasts.

“My friends told me that I should visit ‘Kaap van Goeie Hoop’ and I am planning to spent a few days there before I return to Kaliningrad which is an enclave of the Russian Federation and is sandwiched in between Lithuania and Poland,” she says.

She says she also wants to attend a rugby game.