…Lauds competing nations & gov’t for support

HEAD of the Guyana Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation (GBBFF) Keavon Bess says the support from all stakeholders and participating countries made the 51st Edition of the Central American and Caribbean Bodybuilding Championship a success.
Held at the Natural Cultural Centre over the weekend, the event saw standout performances by the Caribbean’s top athletes with bragging rights and Pro cards up for grabs.

“I would say it was a successful [event]. First and foremost, in terms of getting the support from the government and the corporate sector and then having the country’s agreeing to come to Guyana despite some of them having to pay a premium ticket cost, getting a lot of athletes to come to Guyana and getting a lot of our athletes to go on stage, it was successful.”

Bess added he would have liked to see individual athletes enjoy more success, but they did awesome job as a Guyana team.
“I expected for us to get the overall in the men’s physique and the men’s bodybuilding but it was close, we are still grateful that we were always in contention, we got several gold medals……even if they didn’t get gold, they were close to getting gold and copped second or took a bronze medal, so overall I’m proud of my team.”

The long-time administrator says the body with him at the helm has set the bar for the sport with the hosting of this event.

Guyana dominated the championship with 333 points overall, fielding 25 athletes on stage to Barbados second on 327 and El Salvador third with 165 points.

Overall, the locals copped 25 medals inclusive of 7 golds.
The highlight of the country’s performance was the capturing of one of the prestigious Pro-cards by National Men’s Physique Champion Emmerson Campbell.
Campbell, who has donned the CAC stage for several years with varied levels of success achieved his dream of winning another gold has the bonus reward of snapping up a professional card.
“I’m glad I had a good prep and I have the support that I have and glad that I’m now a pro athlete, it’s just surreal,” Campbell said.

Campbell took the pro-card despite getting second in the overall pose off after winning his Men’s Physique up to 173 centimeters category.
He said he was peeved to miss out on the overall win but the pro-card was special on home soil.
Campbell added, “I wondered why I lost because I think I had him at physique wise but when I spoke to the judges, they said my shorts was too tight for my stage attire, that was the thing that cost me but they said event though that was the case, they still awarded me a pro-card because in the physique I was superior.”

Remalton Siland won gold and two bronze in the Men’s Physique Masters Open, fitness and seniors up to 170 cm.
Julio Sinclair copped gold in the men’s bodybuilding over 90kg.

Delrae Mclean also copped bronze in the Men’s Bodybuilding Masters 40-49 year’s class and silver in the seniors up to 75kg.
Overseas based Guyanese Rawle Greene took silver and bronze in the men’s bodybuilding seniors up to 85 kg and masters class.

Anthony Bayley took gold in the men’s junior physique and Christina Ramsammy copped two silver medals in the Bikini Masters over 35 and Women’s over 35 bodybuilding.
Also, in the women category Angelica Barroncas took silver in the Wellness Masters over 35.

Other medal winners include Jamal Pollydore, Joel Caldeira, Orlanzo Valenzuela, Kadeem Bowen and Christopher Anthony.