But it was last year's National Shape Champ Jess Coate, who came in leaner, over Miriam Johnston and Roma Shapleski. All the athletes who didn't place weren't too far away, they just perhaps either needed more condition or muscle to create their shape.
Alan was the standout winner in the Junior Men with his mass, condition and cuts. We saw the return of Nigel Randell in the Masters 40+, while his other half Donna Randell competed in Senior Figure class. The condition of the girls here were great with Sarah File taking it out with her full and lean figure while Donna probably didn't bring her best this time and appeared to come in too thin but we know she can recoup for the Auckland show. Not taking away from Sarah ofcourse who was great! Credit must also go to 3rd place ..... who did the diet herself and came in great condition.
  
Michelle, Kym Janine in Open Katie sings Kym's routine Donna, Sarah and ? in Senior Fig
video of this soon
For a change, the organisers put the Open Figure girls Janine Haywood, Kym Carter and Michelle Dixon in the middle of the show which was a great idea as usually the crowd has already left by the time Open athletes come on stage at the end. This time, the crowd were treated to a good battle between the well muscled and lean conditions of Janine and Kym. Michelle perhaps was a little outdone here but she made up for it with her glamness (if that's a word). It was probably a close call with Janine edging out Kym with a more balanced physique all round. Kym surprised us with having her friend Kate on stage with her singing her posing routine, we'll post that up on site in the near future.
Was good to see the return of Annette in the open physique were she wowed us with her ultra lean condition. Also a nice surpise was seeing Gladys Matthews switching from figure to physique to go up against Julie Kingi in the Senior Physique class. However it was Julie's more muscled physique that won it over Gladys.
Unfortunately we didn't see many Open Physique or Athletic Men in this show at all. Where are you guys? Hope you're saving yourselves for Akls or later in the year. However we did see Talia and David Beaver in Open Tall and Short. Looks like David has put on some good size and no doubt will be a contender at the Nationals.
The numbers of well conditioned bodies in Novice Physique and Athletic Men made up for the lack of Opens in this show. We saw a good battle between David Leafa and Jade Haigh in the Novice Physique Tall class. Jade's good looks couldn't quite match David's all round mass and cuts to take out that class. While in the short class it was nice to see Micky Dolan turn around his physique from last year to come in lean while keeping his mass to take out that class. The Novice Athletic Tall was a good watch as the athletes were in ripped and full condition. However the main focus was between Morne and 2nd place ?. Both had the mass but Morne just had those extra cuts to sway the judges his way.
The judges would've had a tough task judging the very impressive line up of Novice Figures, probably the best we've seen for a long time. In the short class it was between Toni Williams and Kendra. Both were well muscled and lean but perhaps it came down to tanning that made the difference. Toni was perfectly tanned while Kendra probably needed another coat or 2 to show off her muscularity a little more as we had a hard time seeing her under the bright lights. This is why its so important to have plenty of tan before stepping on stage athletes!
The Novice Tall Figure class was a challenge to judge and the judges spent more time with the comparisons to choose the top 3. In the end it came down to the ultra lean Fiona, with Robyn 2nd and Alyssa third. We encourage the rest of the athletes in the class to stick with it and come back in another show as we know you girls have the condition too.
  
Overall Comparisons Physique, Athletic, Figure
The Overalls was a great watch, especially the figure class. All the ladies had spot on condition but it was Janine's muscle maturity and mass, and probably stage experience that won her the title for the second year in a row. David Leafa and Morne Barnard were standouts in their classes and took out the titles while Annette Browning with her ripped condition took out the physique.
Team Tarryn McCall won Team of the night with many of Tarren's clients winning their classes
It was a great show which ran on time at both prejudging and night show. The night show was very efficient finishing by 9.30pm, in time for the athletes to enjoy the fruits of their labour.
Thanks NABBA for letting Go Figure sharing our pics with our viewers and we look forward to seeing you all at the NABBA Auckland on 3 May where we're expecting a lot more athletes to reveal themselves.
Lisa Menzies
Go Figure
|
