Gymnastics: Wanganui Boys & Girls Club welcomes new Danish coaches

Maria Olsson and Frederik Abildskov are the new Danish coaches at the Wanganui Boys and Girls Gym Club.

Wanganui Boys and Girls Gym Club has welcomed their latest mentors from Denmark as Maria Olsson and Frederik Abildskov will be helping youngsters everywhere from the mats to the beams.

The club has a reciprocal arrangement with Ollerup Gymnastics Academy in Denmark, which was brokered by Danish expats Jens and Karen Bukholt in the late 1980s.

Local club members travel to Denmark to join the academy, while recent Danish get selected to journey to Whanganui to act as coaches.

Olsson and Abildskov are both 21, with Maria having done performance and competitive gymnastics for 15 years, and coaches two performance teams in her native country.

Frederik has done performance and Teamgym for 17 years, while he has also been involved in coaching for eight years.

The two recent academy graduates will be in Whanganui until the end of December.

"I have always found gymnastic fun and challenging, and therefore I started as a coach to pass on this nice experience to other kids," said Olsson.

The pair say their experiences with the Whanganui club have been good.

"We have met the different teams and have started to coach both kids and adults.

"They have been very welcoming, like our new colleagues and host, and we are really looking forward to the next couple of months with them.

"We are very excited to teach danish gymnastics in the gym club as well as learn more about the gymnastic culture here in New Zealand."

The new coaches, along with a few of the club's own Ollerup graduates, will be hosting a coaching and tumbling workshop soon.

"They are a fantastic asset to our club and our gymnasts are very lucky to have the opportunity to learn from them," said Head Coach Kelly-Taylor Ward.