The Tribune

THE Bahamas Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation crowned its 2013 national champions at the National Center for the Performing Arts in an awe inspiring show on Saturday night.

Jimmy Norius and Lorraine LaFleur walked away as overall winners and the titles of Mr and Ms Independence Bahamas respectively.

For Norius, it was his second consecutive national championship in men’s bodybuilding.

Norius, who went on to win a silver medal at the CAC Games last year, was also the reigning BBFF’s ‘Male Bodybuilder of the Year’.

After almost a six-year absence from the bodybuilding stage, Norius, the 2006 Novice winner, returned to the bodybuilding stage competing in his first show, New Providence Body Building Classic, in June of 2012 where he walked away with the Best Physique, Most Muscular, and Lightweight title and eventually the overall Open Men’s title.

“This year, we celebrated the 40th along with the country. I feel good about this year’s competition. I was happy and delighted to see the response of the crowd and the response from the competitors. This sport is a very difficult one to sustain and this year we had almost 40 people compete. The problem is the athletes have to keep up with the vitamins and the supplements and hard core training and diets and gym memberships so cost is one of the reasons we have had a small turnout but this year we had a lot of people come out,” BBFF president Danny Sumner said.

“We have not had that in a long time. On top of that the competitors were fairly young, in there late 20s, early 30s and about 10 to 15 of them did it for the very first time. Now my job is to motivate them and keep them in the sport.”

Lorraine Lafleur continued her dominance in women’s bodybuilding with another national title, but Sumner said he still wishes to see more women compete in the sport.

He also wished to see a greater turnout in the high school category.

“The only area I was disappointed in was the high school category. We had about 10 kids training initially but only one ended up competing. I think the crowd got to them and the other bigger men in the competition. So next year we will do it in the schools auditorium so they can be less frightened,” he said.

“Next year we also want to gave a friendly armed forces competition between the Royal Bahamas Police Force and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force. Those guys are athletic and it would be nice to see a competition between them.”

Returning to its roots, the BBFF rebranded the 40th edition of the event as the “Mr and Ms Independence Bahamas Bodybuilding Championships” - the same name given to the event when it was first hosted in 1973.

The event featured several categories of competition, including traditional bodybuilding, women’s fitness, women’s swimsuit and men’s physique.

The National Championships, according to Sumner, will be used to select the national team that is expected to represent the Bahamas at the 2013 Central American and Caribbean Bodybuilding Championships in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, September 19-23.

The team will be picked based on the overall performances of each athlete.

This year, the BBFF also inducted nine members into its Hall of Fame, while 32 athletes and administrators were awarded for the role they played over the past 40 years in the development of bodybuilding and fitness.

Sumner said the induction ceremony is a new venture for local sporting federations to occur during a major national event.

“The good thing about our Hall of Fame is that it is done in a special way. There are many Hall of Fame inductions in the country, but those are more or less awards ceremonies for show. What we are doing here in bodybuilding, we want ours to have the feel of how they do it in Major League Baseball, where they have a game in Cooperstown, New York, and in the National Football League where they have a game in Canton, Ohio, to commemorate these occasions. So what we wanted to do with the nationals this year, and I think we are the first federation to do it, is to have our Hall of Fame with a national event. And the reason for this is to have the new athletes mingle and get to know the legends that came before them,” Sumner said.

The inductees this year are former Mr Bahamas Jeremy Knowles, Dwight Palacious from Grand Bahama, the late Melonie Feaster from Grand Bahama, Henry Charlton, considered one of the best posers in the region, Sam Williams, Della Thomas, the first Bahamian female to win an international medal, Maxine Darville, a former Ms Bahamas who has also won numerous international medals, Amos Saunders, and Baldwin Darling, a former bodybuilder who played a key role as an administrator and coach in Grand Bahama.

40th BBFF National

Championship Results

Bikini Short Class

Amy Sands

Second Lashandel Whylly

Bruna Santos

Bikini Tall Class

Naiomi Fatal

Jhenny Bahadosingh

Prudence Gallager

Body Fitness Class A

Nicole Richardson

Body Fitness Class B

Dawnita Fry

Tangerika Williams

Women’s Fitness Open

Dawn Charlton

Body Building Open Women’s

Lorraine La leur

Tameka Stubbs

Men’s Fitness Open

Theodore Pyfrom

Men’s Physhique Short CLass

Kenny Mackey

Lynden Fowler

Terran Knowles

Men’s Physique Tall

Johnathon Richards

Ethan QUant

Men’s Body Building Lightweight

Lynden Fowler

Charles Reckly

David Fenton

Men’s Welterweight

Jimmy Norius

Dominique Bannister

Men’s Lightweight

Andrew Sweeting

Comfort Miller

Light Heavyweight

John Rolle

Jameil Hamilton

Heavyweight

Robert Harris

Super Heavyweight

Bernard Davis

Sydney Outten

Men’s Overall Winner

Mr Independence Bahamas 2013 - Jimmy Norris

Women’s Overall Winner

Ms Independence Bahamas 2013 -

Lorraine LaFleur

Best Overall Fitness

Dawnita Fry