The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THEY’RE still making some adjustments, but Bahamas Bodybuilding and Powerlifting Federation president Joel Stubbs said once completed, Team Bahamas will have a very strong team to compete in the Central American and Caribbean Bodybuilding and Powerlifting Championships.

The federation is expected to host the championships September 24-27 at the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island. The majority of the team was selected based on their performances at the federation’s National Bodybuilding and Powerlifting Championships hosted at the Melia Nassau Beach Resort two weeks ago.

By the end of the week, Stubbs said they intend to put the finishing touches on the completion of the team selection.

“As the host country, we are allowed to carry as much as two competitors in each division,” Stubbs said. “So we are in the process of selecting the complete team, but we have some athletes pending because we have some athletes who are the same height and we have to re-size them to see if we can get them to fit in another category where we don’t have sufficient athletes.”

Based on the team selection, Stubbs said the Bahamas will have a very strong team to carry the flag at the championships.

“We have a very strong team this year to fight and battle for the gold medal,” Stubbs said. “At the nationals, we saw the calibre of our athletes and we are really pushing hard for them to get the job done. We want to put our best foot forward and make sure that we are in a good position to contend for the overall title.”

Looking at the make-up of the team so far, Stubbs said their strength right now is in the women’s body fitness and the men’s bodybuilding.

“We are also looking for medal contention in the women’s bikini and hopefully all of our competitors can come through with gold medals because our athletes have really taken the competition to another level,” Stubbs said. “So I think we will see our girls be in medal contention.

“We are also looking at Dawn Charlton, who just missed winning the gold medal last year to be a contender this year and even Lorraine LaFleur has been knocking on the door in the women’s physique for the past two years and we are confident that this could be her year to win it all to get her pro card.”

Looking at the men’s bodybuilding, Stubbs said they have a number of competitors like national champion Jimmy Norius, Paul ‘Mighty Mouse’ Wilson and Joey Rolle among the list of contenders for a medal.

By the weekend, Stubbs said the federation will also release the names of the management team.

• Here’s a look at the athletes named to the team so far:

Women’s Body Fitness

Class A - Claudia Seymour

Class B - Tammy Stubbs

Class C - Charnice Bain and Dekel Nesbitt

Class D - Lakeisha Miller and Lyndsay Jarnagin

Women’s Physique

Short Class - Lorraine LaFleur and Tanya Moxey

Women’s Fitness

Open - Dawn Charlton and Kim Nesbitt

Women’s Bikini

Class A - Amy Sands

Class B - Kadesha Culmer

Class C - Naomi Fetal

Class D - Tazma Thompson and Shakira Ferguson

Class E - Carina Ferguson

Class F - Selena Munroe and Alexavia Dorsett

Men’s Physque

Class A - Kenlexis Mackey and Tarran Knowles

Class B - Omar McKenzie

Class C - Vernon Rodgers

Class D - Edierich Rahming and Sebastian Rolle

Men’s Bodybuilding

Bantamweight - Charles Reckley; lightweight - Paul Wilson and Lynden Fowler; welterweight - Jimmy Norius; light middleweight - Chris McQueen; super middleweight - Joey Rolle; light heavyweight - Julian Davis and Desmond Rolle; heavyweight - Jameil Hamilton; super heavyweight - Bernard Davis and Maurice Hall; masters - Jimmy Norius and Desmond Bain.

Men’s Fitness

Open - Macumbola Smith

• A CHAMPION’S JOURNEY - see Tribune Health on page 8 of Business section.