A girl who made headlines around the world when she survived almost two weeks alone int he Siberian wilderness has won a Russian children’s beauty contest.
Karina Chikitova, who clung on to her loyal puppy, fought to stay alive in a forest full of brown bears and wolves.
The promising ballerina celebrates her 10th birthday on Boxing Day and has already won the Mini Miss Yakutia contest.
In August 2014 she was found after a dozen days and nights lost in the remote taiga, sleeping on a bed of long grass and eating wild berries to stay alive.
Karina had followed her father into the woods but he had no idea she was trailing him.
Then just four years old, she cuddled her mongrel puppy Naida for warmth in the shivering cold before the dog found its way home to a remote village, urging rescuers not to give up, and to go and find the little girl.
Karina’s ordeal was seen as so remarkable that a statue was erected of her and the dog in regional capital Yakutsk.
A popular children’s book was also written about her, and her fame as a Mowgli seems to have led this remote village girl to amazing new opportunities.
Karina was “excited” after she easily won the Mini Miss contest in a social media poll, making her a young ambassador for Yakutia, Russia’s diamond region, the coldest inhabited place in the world.
She is seen as a promising ballerina, already studying full time in Yakutsk, some 350 miles from her home.
Now she has been invited in 2020 to Moscow to meet leading ballet stars including world famous dancer Nikolay Tsiskaridze, now rector of the world famous Vaganova Academy.
“I want to become a ballerina and dance Swan Lake,” she said. “I have also learned how to play the jaw harp and piano.”
Bi-lingual Karina is doing well at school, too, where she has a talent for maths, and is learning English to add to her fluent Yakut and Russian.
Her guardian in Yakutsk, Albina Cherepanova, 60, said: “She may become a ballet dancer.”
Globally-renowned fashion designer Irina Krutikova promised Karina a fur coat to keep warm in her region where temperatures plunge in winter to minus 60°C.
When she was found her rescuer Artyom Borisov said: “She was sitting deep in deergrass, completely silent.
“I didn’t actually notice her. She saw me and stretched her arms forward. I picked her up, she was so tiny, so light, like fluff. She didn’t have shoes on. Her face, legs and arms were bitten to blood (by mosquitos).
“She was dead scared. Straight away she asked to for water and food, and burst into tears.
“To be honest I could hardly hold back tears, too."
Later Karina said: “It was Naida who rescued me. I was really, really scared. But when we were going to sleep I hugged her, and together we were warm.”
