Walvis Bay gymnast Janice van Rooyen recently started her own Rhythmic Gymnastics and Aerobics venture, called the Atlantic Gymnastics Club. Van Rooyen, who started her career as a rhythmic gymnast in 2000, said the time has come for her to share her expertise with upcoming gymnasts. She completed her first coaching course in 2009, and at that time was the youngest rhythmic gymnastics coach in the country. She then signed up for an age group and development course with the International Gymnastics Federation in April 2016 and completed her national judging course just a few months later. Van Rooyen has been a member of several other clubs over the years, but always made herself available when her services were needed. “I want to teach other children what I have learned over the years. When I started with gymnastics, my mother couldn’t pay full fees. She was also helped through sponsorships and was dependent on sponsorships most of the time. So I want to identify a girl and say we are going to do this until national level “she explained. Van Rooyen added that her new club focuses on rhythmic and aerobic gymnastics. While aerobics is something new to her, she is excited about the challenge. “Basically the principle is the same as in gymnastics, it is just a different section. I’m very excited to do something because with rhythmic gymnastics you can wake me up in the middle of the night , but with aerobics I want to learn more” Van Rooyen said, “ At this time of the year we cannot train, so we are praying for Covid numbers to go down, so in January we can all come together and do a coaches course.” She said. The club already has 12 girls who have registered for rhythmic gymnastics. Van Rooyen will start training with them in January 2021. Overall, the club will be able to accommodate up to 30 girls and van Rooyen believes that the young gymnasts are going to be the national athletes of tomorrow.