The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

FOR the third consecutive four-year term, Danny Sumner will serve as president of the Bahamas Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation.

Sumner was re-elected over the weekend as the federation saw some significant changes to the rest of the executive board.

After serving as the interim vice president last year, Dr Cypriann Strachan was confirmed to that position, replacing Dereck Bullard. Dr Strachan will also be responsible for all doping and medical aspects of the federation, a position he assumed over the last few years.

Lillian Moncur is back as the secretary general and Oreantheia Mackey is the assistant secretary/treasurer. Bullard is now the executive director, a position that was recently created. The new chairman of the judges’ committee is Simone Sawyer, who replaces Jeremy Knowles.

Knowles is now the new chairman of the technical committee. Chavonne Roker is chairman of the research and development committee and the advisors to the president are Donna Williams in New Providence and Chrisandra Newbold from Grand Bahama. Sharon Sawyer is chairperson of the ladies’ committee and Donna Major is the legal counsel.

Richard Demeritte and Dr Norman Gay are back as patrons as honourary members of the executive board. The honourary president is the late Hubert Wong.

“I feel very confident with the board that we have now and we have some plans that we intend to work on this year,” Sumner said. “This is the third consecutive term for me after getting into bodybuilding years ago under Hubert Wong and Dr Norman Gay.

“I got involved in the federation as the assistant public relations officer. The person who got me into this was Jeremy Knowles. At the time, he was one of the dominant bodybuilders in the country. I was just always in the forefront in the public relations department. But I moved up the ladder to serve as vice president with responsibility for public relations.

Having served under a number of presidents, including Mr Wong, Dr Norman Gay, Alfred DeCosta, Hartley Saunders, Richard Demeritte and Rex Burnside, Sumner said it would appear as if he was the president for a long time. But he noted that his involvement in the public relations has prepared him for his role over the past decade.

As he continues to lead the federation for another term, Sumner said they intend to bring an influx of new young competitors to the sport.

“The sport requires a lot of hard work in training in discipline and dieting,” he said. “You need good discipline for dieting and a lot of hard work for training. So basically, we have to keep a good turn over to keep the sport in high gear. A lot of the bodybuilders who have been around in the 1970s and 1980s are now in doing personal training and assisting others.

“We have been targeting a lot of the high schools with the view of getting more younger bodybuilders involved, but with very little success. We have to look into that and make sure that we get more of them involved for the survival of this sport.”

If there is anything that Sumner feels he can be proud of, it’s the increased involvement of the females in the sport.

“We have two new disciplines in the sport in female fitness and the swim suit categories,” he said. “The ladies are staying in them as opposed to getting into bodybuilding. There’s not as much hard work that goes into bodybuilding. So we are now seeing a fitness, not just here, but worldwide, because the ladies are either entering fitness or the swimsuit categories.”

The men have not been left behind either.

“We have added two more men’s categories. They are the male physique and the classic bodybuilding, which is a combination of body fitness and bodybuilding,” Sumner said. “These two categories have been added to the men’s bodybuilding and we have seen more men getting into those categories as they are in the new women’s categories.”

The federation is expected to begin its new season on Saturday, March 29 when they host a fun run/walk race starting from Montagu Bay to Arawak Cay and back. More details, he said, will be released at a later date. The first contest is scheduled for May 31 when the novice competition takes place.