By Michelangelo Jacobus

THE Guyana Body Building and Fitness Federation (GBBFF) has unveiled their proposed calendar of activities for 2018 and it is set to be a packed one especially in the months of July and September.

However, the first activity of the year will commence in April. From the sixth to the eighth of that month there will be a course targeting the judges in Guyana. Immediately after that course, on April 8, the Federation will host its first competition of the year – the Novices Championship in which fresh blood will be introduced to the sport.

It is also the aim of the GBBFF to send a team of Guyana’s finest bodybuilders to Mexico June 22-23, to fly the Golden Arrowhead at the Pro League Super Show.
Following the Mexico trip, the federation will then turn its attention to the Health and Fitness Expo at the Marriott Hotel on July 14. The very next day (July 15), the senior bodybuilders will take the stage at the same venue as they vie for the title of Guyana’s best senior athletes in the sport.

Just a little over a week after the senior championships, a Guyanese contingent is scheduled to fly to the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Championships in Mexico scheduled for July 27-29.
On September 23, the GBBFF’s Intermediate Championships will kick off while the Darcy

Beckles Classic is set for Barbados on September 29.
Closing off the GBBFF’s calendar of activities will be the Eddy Wilson Classic in Suriname and Sports World Classic in Trinidad and Tobago. The dates for those two competitions will be announced later.

Speaking to Chronicle Sport>exclusively, GBBFF president Coel Marks maintained that the main aim of the federation is: “Building greater awareness and securing finances to achieve our goal of enhancing the athletes in Guyana”.
He also pointed out that the GBBFF will be looking to make the marquee events more entertaining and attractive as well as to promote health and fitness along with raising awareness of violence against women.

“Based on the feedback we’ve gotten about the shows last year; they were more entertaining and attractive. It seems that we have the formula. This year our flagship event; the Senior Championships will be a weekend event which we intend to incorporate multiple platforms along with the bodybuilding and fitness, for example, awareness of violence against women.
This will be done as a means of highlighting the importance of maintaining overall wellness not just in sports.”