40 athletes, mostly men, competed in this show along with quite a large group of physique women which was a nice change to see them outnumbering the figure. While only 3 figures and 1 bikini girl ventured into this contest.
Nice to see the return of former Mr NZ Phil Kuklinski who blew away the masters 50 class with his mass and cuts. Seeing him posedown next to Sanjeev for the Overall was one of the highlights of the show. In fact it was good to see all the well conditioned guys on stage posing down. But Sanjeev once again with his symmetry won it over Phil. |

Another weekend, another Show Lisa and Michelle fresh from ANB |
Also super cut was Julie Harris who was fresh from her trip to the ANB, she appeared leaner and more vascular in this comp and took out the overall with her condition.
Thought the calibre of the novice physiques was fantastic, not only were they in great condition but they were all very feminine and glammed up for the occasion. Margot and Tara winners of their respective classes gave Julie a great contest for the Overalls so let's hope they stick with it and we'll see them at another show.
Teneka Hyndman (open) and Johanna Mountfort (nov) went head to head in figure (former bodyfitness) while also competing in fitness (former figure) which made for very confusing viewing. The other novice figure was Jen Baird who was up against Johanna.
To confuse things even more (smoking hot) Fabianny competed and won in Bikini class and also joined Teneka and Johanna in the figure line up. Confused? we all were.
In the end Teneka and Johanna posed off for the Overall, although not sure if it was figure or fitness that Johanna won. They both looked fab! Maybe if there were more girls competing it might be less confusing.
It wouldn't be an NZFBB show without a few surprises so I'd just like to outline a few so that in future athletes can be prepared for their next NZFBB contest:
* Upon arriving at the venue I noticed there was a couple of tanning tents set up on the lower level of the foyer. This is a good idea, as it limits the mess that tanning products can lead to but I thought this was very exposed considering that athletes can be seen by both people walking up the stairs from outside - and by those people waiting on the upper mezzanine level - it was not a great place to be. Afterall, I'd assume the athletes would be naked (or almost) naked and if I was a novice (actually even open competitors would find this uncomfortable) the last thing I'd want to be is naked in front of people. In future if this tanning was to take place, I'd recommend a nice secluded room where athletes would feel more comfy.
* The other surprise I heard was that the reason for the tanning tent was that Dream Tan cream was not allowed at the show. Think athletes would've appreciated being informed about this through Go Figure or on the NZFBB's own website as athletes would've already bought their tans but now its rendered useless on show day. But then athletes had no choice but get the spray tanning option which added to cost of show day.
* Next up was the fact that athletes can compete in more than one class. Again this was not communicated through the websites but athletes were told at registration. This option was taken up more from the girls than guys. So when the female classes came on I, and many audience members, were very confused as to which class was which. I learned later that this decision to offer athletes to compete in more than one class is to keep in line with what's happening in the American NPC.
The day show started a little late and took about an hour and a half. The night show however was a different story. It began around 5.30pm but didn't finish till close to 10pm! this extension was mostly due to the inclusion of 8 athletes competing in 6 or 7 rounds of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu fighting. The knockout rounds and final took about an hour which left athletes waiting to go on in the second half of the show very anxiou. We all appreciated the skills needed for fighting, perhaps one exhibition match would've been plenty, as afterall this was a bodybuilding show.
In saying the above though, we thought Bronwyn did a great job bringing the show together which went off relatively smoothly. However we hope this feedback helps NZFBB to make improvements for your next show and keep your athletes happy.
Lisa, Go Figure
7 June 10
More pics soon
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