The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

AS a prelude to the Bahamas Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation’s 40th Independence Bodybuilding and Fitness Championships, 18 competitors are expected to travel to compete in the Grand Bahama Bodybuilding Championship at the Regency Theatre on Saturday night.

“This show is going to be very big,” said federation president Danny Sumner, who will head the delegation going to the championships. “We are expecting a lot of the top bodybuilders to be competing in the championships before they compete in the National Championships.”

Among the competitors expected to make the trek to Grand Bahama are Lorraine LaFleur, David Fenton, Juliette Rolle, Charles Reckley, Jamal Hamilton, Anna Greene, Jimmy Norius, Tio Pyfrom, Lucus Leader, Jonathan and Nicole Richardson, David Charlton, Dorrinton Rolle and Donita Fry, who has already made her mark in a few competitions in the United States.

Norius, by the way, is the defending men’s national champion and Grand Bahamian Tameka Stubbs is the women’s defending champion.

Stubbs went on to win the lightweight gold medal at the Central American and Caribbean Bodybuilding Championships in Puerto Rico where the Bahamas finished fourth.

Norius picked up a bronze medal in the lightweight division.

Johnnie Jackson, an American IFBB professional bodybuilder and powerlifter who is sometimes referred to as the world’s strongest bodybuilder, will be a guest poser at the championships, which last year was combined with the national championships.

“This year, they are having their own Grand Bahama Bodybuilding and Fitness Championships and right after them, the federation will be putting on the National Bodybuilding and Fitness Championships here on July 13 at the National Centre for the Performing Arts,” Sumner said.

“In total, we are expecting to see between 30-40 competitors competing in Grand Bahama this weekend. From all indications that we are receiving, it’s going to be very big. The organisation committee over there, led by its president Rob Harris, is doing a tremendous job in getting the show off the ground.”

The National Championships, according to Sumner, will crown the Mr and Ms Bahamas champions and 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,” Sumner said.

For the record, the first Mr Independence Bahamas was Neil Dean and Jeremy Knowles was the junior champion. Knowles went on to win six national titles. The first Ms Bahamas was Della Thomas.