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Report
If the quality and quantity of the 83 athletes at the recent NZIFBB Waikato Bodybuilding Champs are to go by, the NZIFBB National Champs this Saturday is going to be a hum dinger and definitely must see for bodybuilding and figure fans.
Athletes from far afield converged in Hamilton hoping to qualify for the Nationals. We saw Sue Bettridge from Feilding compete in her 7th show (I think) in the Physique women's class where she displayed full lean condition. If she decides to do Nationals, she's going to have a great battle with Taylor 'Typhoon' Smith who's awesome condition has always been her signature. Lets hope we get to these two amazing ladies posedown. It was also great to see Julie Harris back on stage in the bodybuilding class. As usual she was ripped and vascular but wasn't able to match Sue's size in the overall bodybuilding contest.
In the figure classes we saw some new talent coming through in Lil Avery and Kat Carpinter in the Novice Tall and Caroline in the Novice Short who showed great poise while posing. Heidi Kruger took out the Open Short while Yoko Washington's symmetry helped her win the Open Figure Tall class. It was the symmetry that also helped Yoko edge out Heidi for the Overall Title. Nationals are going to be great as Brooke Thomson-Tuatao will be thrown into the mix in the Open Short and will be nice to see her and Heidi on stage together along with other athletes ofcourse.
 
Bikini was again a popular class with 6 and 8 athletes competing in the Short and Tall class respectively. But the ultimate babe went to Carena West who's combination of sassiness and toned body combined to take the Overall Title.
Boys boys boys, there were so many boys at this show through out all the classes. Physique attracted 5 and 9 athletes respectively and gave the audience plenty of eye candy. They were all in great shape and equipped with the all important abs. But Jeremy had the nice mix of charm and muscular body to take the Tall and overall title.
The Masters class has never looked better with great competition between Brian McFarlane and Antz Bryant in the 40+ class. However it was Brian's condition and those ripped legs that helped him take the class in a great field. Hard to believe Joe Fepulaei is over 50+. He showed great muscle detail and fullness and a credit to his commitment to healthy living.
The best battle would've been the Novice u70 class between Dave Wood, Dene Flude and Allan Taumatia. Dave and Dene were lean and ripped while Allan had great symmetry but not quite the condition to match the other 2 boys. The judges had that class out for at least 20mins which showed just how close it was but in the end it was Dene who took it out with his shreddedness (if that's word :) with Allan second and Dave third.
The show will also be remembered for the return of the O'Malley brothers Teina and Ken. To the naked eye,you could hardly separate who's who as they are so similar. From their symmetry, muscle depth and detail and leanness their genetics is something to be seen. But luckily, they had different trunks on so we could identify which was which. Teina, the younger of the two competed in the open u80 while Ken in the novice u80. Ken outmuscled his competitors to take out the class while Teina faced stiff competition from Sifa Mafi who has won a few shows up to this point. Teina's shorter structure and mass proved too much for Sifa's tall frame and Teina took it out.
 
Overall Men's Comparison
So it was onto the Overalls for the O'Malley brothers along with the creme of the crop from the show which included Brian McFarlane and Lance McMillan who had a nice combination of mass, cuts and condition. These were the big 4 to watch. It was great to see Teina and Ken on stage side by side as it was hard to separate which brother was actually better. Lance McMillan matched them in definition and condition but again it was the structure and the mass that Teina had that got him the overall over his brother and Lance. It was a fantastic watch and hope to see this again at the Nationals where no doubt more of NZ's finest physiques will vy for the National Champ crown.
 
Ken and Teina O'Malley
It was a great show, the backstage was well run in a friendly atmosphere. The only thing that we could please ask NZIFBB to consider is the individual compulsory poses everyone has to do. This takes so much time and wondered if there was a way that they can only do this once instead of 2 or 3 times if they have entered multiple classes. This would save so much time.
Thank you NZIFBB for having Go Figure there doing our thing!
See you all very soon at the NZIFBB Nationals this Saturday! Going to be a good one.
Lisa, Go Figure
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