Clarke, Campbell regain body building supremacy

After being dethroned in 2017, Kerwin Clarke and Emerson Campbell flexed their muscles to the best to regain their respective titles when the Guyana Amateur Body Building and Fitness Federation staged their senior championships on Sunday at the Park Rayne Hotel, Houston.

Kerwin Clarke, four-time winner, entered the championships hungry for success and took the biggest bite to once again be announced as  Mr. Guyana title.

There was no Bruce Whatley, the 2017 champion, and it meant anyone wishing to challenge the chiselled physique of  Clarke had to come good.

Depending on which side of the fence you sat, none were able to muster much of challenge to the space gym member given the light middleweight category only had Clarke and Lindy Sharpe from the University of Guyana gym, an outlook which disappointed Clarke.

“This year’s competition was not as expected. I was expecting a high entrance on stage from my fellow competitors with the likes of Godfrey Stoby and I was expecting the reigning champion, Bruce Whatley, to be on stage so that I could have taken it from him rightfully. It didn’t happen that way but now I just put my focus to the CAC  Games”, the now five-time champion stated.

The men’s physique category had a lot of hype heading into the event since Campbell was very outspoken about the deep desire to regain his title from  Space gym’s Yannick Grimmes.

The duo put on a show and thrilled the fans. In the end, it was Campbell,  a two-time champion who won his third title.

“It is always good to win. I was not gracious in defeat last year but I righted my wrongs this year and did what I had to on the stage and I am thankful to everyone who supported me”.

In the heavyweight category,  Carlos Peterson won ahead of Andel Cameron and Clint Duke while Life Gym’s Carus Cipriani was the only one standing for the Welterweight category.

Light Weight was won by Marlon Bennette who edged out Eybo Oford and Dario Moonsammy.

Ms Bikini which had vast improvement from one contestant in 2017, went to Chandi Khan of Fitness Paradise  Angela Barroncas and Dicula Desousa finished second and third.

President of the  GABBFF Coel Marks, explained that marring some technical issues it went well and was well-attended.

Marks also highlighted the recent judges’ course brought the local officials up to date on what are the attributes they should look to score.

“There are certain international compliances we had with past shows, those issues were corrected with judges course we had. So a lot of the patrons were not happy with the decisions but the judges’ decision is final”, Marks explained.

 The Central American and Caribbean Games will be held from July 27-29 in Mexico City and given Guyana’s rich form in recent years, there are expectations of more medals.