New Zealand Pro Championships Pics, 19 March 2011


Happy Snaps! Backstage and After the show click above pic	Video! Top 5 figure comparison click above pic	Elite Men and Darryn Onekawa Guest Posing Pics

Moe with Top 5 figures

2011 NZ Pro Championships Report and Pics

The 2011 NZIFBB New Zealand Figure Pro show was a huge success and credit must go to Moe Moussawi and his team for organizing a well co-ordinated and efficient event.

He had organized a great lineup of Figure Pros to compete which included current Ms Olympia Erin Stern and fellow seasoned American athlete Latisha Wilder. Adding to the list was NZ’s own Raechelle Chase and Kristy Thomson along with Australians Ellena Reidi, Darlene Escano, Kelly Johnson and Jeni Briscoe from Canada. Up for grabs in the Pro class was over $6000 in prizemoney from Xtreme Nutrition.

The nights’ activities also included a bikini class of 12 and Elite Men line of 4 that included Supry Sos, Mateo Vaihu, Raphael and Mando. Credit go out to these guys who presented well conditioned physiques for so early in the year! Supry beat out Mateo and is off to compete at the Australasians this Sat.

Right from the word go, the event started pretty much on time around 6.30pm. Moe had plenty of marshalls and helpers backstage to make sure things ran smoothly. Athletes knew what was happening and were prepared for their time to shine on stage. And they had plenty of opportunity to shine there as the lights at the Auckland Girls Grammar venue was bright. Luckily most of the athletes did have plenty of tan.

The night ofcourse was centred around the Pro Figure class and the awesome figures of the Pro girls. The hot favourite was Erin Stern who has had quite a marathon 3 weeks. First she competed at the Arnold Classic where she placed 2^nd, then a week later she went down under and won in Melbourne at the Australian Pro. With all that traveling and not having access to her own cooking facilities, it was going to be interesting to see how Erin’s figure was going to respond to the stresses. But we need not worry. Erin presented a full and lean figure on her 5’8” frame. She also had immaculate stage presentation and we’re sure many figures in the audience will have watched her carefully to pick up on her grace and confidence.

Erin took the Top spot with Latisha’s equally impressive figure taking second place. Latisha had great symmetry and nice full round muscles with impressive set of delts. Third to 5^th was a tougher battle. The judges called out Raechelle, Ellena and Darlene for comparisons at least 3 times to be judged together and with the other 3 athletes Kristy, Kelly and Jeni. Darlene had the nice wide shoulders and small waist but looked a little muscular compared to the others. While Ellena also had nice symmetry and presentation but perhaps needed a little bit more conditioning in the legs. Raechelle has shown big improvement in conditioning her legs and back to match her top half, and it was the overall package that probably edged Raechelle into 3^rd place.

Raechelle had just missed out on top 3 at Aus Pro (with 4^th place), a third in her hometown was the perfect result for her. Now she’s qualified for the Olympia, the only Kiwi to do so. So a big achievement for her and for New Zealand!

As mentioned earlier, the show was well organized and finished around 8.50pm. Thanks Moe for bringing the Pro girls again to New Zealand and treating the audience to a lineup of great bodies in the Pro, bikini and Elite men’s classes.

If this efficient show is anything to go by, it augurs well for the rest of NZIFBB shows this year.

Lisa, Go Figure
21 March 11

p.s the NZIFBB Auckland Champs on 28 May will be held at Westlake Boys High.


	Pro Figure Results 1. Erin Stern 2. Latisha Wilder 3. Raechelle Chase 4. Darlene Escano 5. Ellena Reidi
Left to right: Darlene, Latisha, Erin, Raechelle, Ellena