The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

In a streak of consecutive performances, Charles Reckley, Paul Wilson-Stubbs and Jimmy Norius strutted to gold in the men’s bodybuilding segment to help propel the Bahamas to the overall title Saturday night at the 43rd Central American and Caribbean Bodybuilding Championships in the Grand Ballroom of the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island.

While it was Norius’ second gold of the night, the first coming in the men’s masters, the trio were joined by Dawn Charlton, the winner of the Fitness Women’s Open and Dekel Nesbitt, the winner of the Body Fitness 1.68 C. The Bahamas also got silver from Naomi Fetal (Fitness), Tammy Stubbs (Body Fitness), Kim Nesbitt (Fitness Open), Macumbola Smith (Fitness Men’s Open) and Jameil Hamilton (Men’s Middle Heavyweight) and bronze from Kadesha Culmer (Bikini), Lakeisha Miller (Body Fitness), Lorraine LaFleur (Women’s Physique) and Rashad Cunningham (Fitness Men’s Open).

Kenny Greene, vice president of the Bahamas Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation, received the championship trophy on behalf of Team Bahamas from CACBBFF president Giovanni Arendsz and an elated Joel Stubbs, who took on the responsibility of hosting the championships in the Bahamas during his first year as the new president of the BBFF.

The Bahamas accumulated a total of 194 points to easily beat out Dominican Republic, who relinquished their title by taking second place with 154. Barbados was third with 147. 

The victory for the Bahamas was capped by the triple feat by Reckley, Wilson-Stubbs and Norius in the men’s bodybuilding segment.

“This year, I felt like I deserve it. I did three shows this year and I worked very hard. This was my second CAC competition and my plan this year was to place in the top six and come back back the next day and get either first, second or third,” Reckley said. “It worked out for me that I got the gold, so I am grateful and thankful to God for it.”

An emotional Reckley kneeled and bowed his head on stage when Devon Davis of Guyana was named as the second place finisher in the bantamweight division.

“It touched me. I won a gold medal for my country and I’m the second bantamweight in the history of the Bahamas to win a gold medal,” said Reckley, who followed in the footsteps of retired Paul Melbourne, who holds the distinction of being the first Bahamian to win the bantamweight division. “So I feel good about it.”

Although he locked up on stage, Reckley said he knew he was on a mission and with the crowd supporting him, he pushed himself to the limit and the result turned out to be a golden one for him.

“I train myself, but Kenny and Aaron Greene from Better Bodies all assist me,” said Reckley, who was assisted off the stage by Jan Johnson, one of his trainers at Better Bodies. “I also have a little team behind me that is always pushing me, so I want to thank them for that.”

After being missing in action for four years, Wilson-Stubbs was back, adding the CAC lightweight title to the national crown he won in his return this year.

“I’m just happy and I give God the glory for this one,” said Wilson-Stubbs after he beat out Hemradj Mulai for the top spot. “The competition was stiff as always at the CAC Games, at the end of the day, I feel as if I put my mind to it, my body will follow through it.”

Wilson-Stubbs said he was just delighted to be a part of the gold rush as he followed Reckley and got his medal before Norius.

“I think they need to start calling us small guys the blade crew,” Wilson-Stubbs said. “We all came through with gold medals from the bantamweight to the welterweight.

Norius, already successful in winning the masters title, out-strutted the field in the welterweight division for his double dose of victory. He tried to go for a hat trick, but didn’t come through in the pose down that went to Germain Navarro of Aruba as the overall champion.

“It was awesome. Long night. The preliminaries at the pre-judging yesterday (Friday) was rough. The weather was horrible. I depended on the sun to kind of pull me through, but it didn’t come out until today (Saturday),” he said. “I managed to sit in the sun for about a hour today (Saturday), got the gold medal in the masters over-40 and the gold in the welterweight.

“But the overall kind of eluded me again this year, so hopefully next year, I can do it. Surprisingly, I knew that I was going to get a medal, but to get the gold in two different classes, I didn’t fathom that. In CAC for some reason, they go with the bigger guys. If a big guy comes tight, no matter how tight you are, they will beat you.

“The guy that won (overall) is a light heavyweight champion and he had the size and the conditioning. I had a little size and my conditioning was enough to get me where I needed to be, but I had to come with both the size and the combination in order to win the overall title.”

No Bahamian won any of the overall titles and as a result, there are still only six listed in the history books as having won a pro card as a result of taking the top sport overall.

Two champions who were in the running as well in their categories were Dekel Nesbitt and Dawn Charlton.

“I just went out there and I enjoyed it. I did not expect that I would have won the gold as this was just my first year competing,” said Nesbitt, the winner of the Body Fitness 1.68 class. “I was just hoping for the best because I really had no idea that I would win. I was just having fun.”

The Grand Bahamian native said she definitely worked very hard during the season and all of her work has paid off.

“It was amazing,” she said of the competition. “I thought I had it in the bag, but it was tougher than I expected. But I had a lot of family and friends who came from Freeport and I had some family, friends and high school friends who all came out to support me, so that was a big help to boost my confidence.”

Last year in St Maarten Charlton was originally declared the winner but, after a recall, she was dropped to second. This year, she left nothing to chance for the judges as she literally dominated the fitness women’s open category.

“It feels great. I feel tired. I feel relieved,” Charlton said. “It’s been a long time coming. It was tough. It was more redemption. I was trying to do better than I did last year and it worked out. I am the champion this year.”

As the curtains came down with the Bahamas celebrating as the overall champions, the Dominican Republic will take some consolation back home as they prepare to host the 44th version of the championships September 29 to October 1, 2016.