BODYBUILDING CONTEST REPORT

By Bill Dobbins

INTRO

Jan Tana has been promoting contests in Virginia for 15 years and women’s pro shows for 12 years. The Jan Tana Classic for female bodybuilding and fitness can’t compete for glamour and publicity with the Olympia or Arnold Weekends, but these shows are extremely important. Especially the women’s bodybuilding event. It is very difficult for pro women to qualify for the Ms. Olympia or to receive and invitation to the Ms. International (and now the GNC contest in November). This is especially true for pro women from Europe, South America and the Far East. If they win the Jan Tana, they go to the Olympia. If they do well they can hope to be noticed by the promoters of the invitational events.

Without Jan’s contest this would be incredibly more difficult.

For the past two years the Jan Tana Classic has been held in Lynchburg, Virgina, the town where Jan lives. I use the word “town” because it is hardly a city. Being rural Virginia, there seems to be a church on every street corner and plenty of religious broadcasts on radio and television. If you are in Lynchburg, don’t expect to tune into the Howard Stern radio program on weekday mornings. And don’t expect any restaurant anywhere near “downtown” to be open on weekend evenings.

The contest was staged this year at a local high school and the facilities were excellent. Nice auditorium, big stage and better lighting than at many other events. For example, at the USA this year there were no lights on finals nights focused on the area where the fitness women did their routines. As a result, I shot no photos of the performances. In contrast, there are almost 200 routine pictures of my photo coverage of the Jan Tana.

There were a few problems. The main one was the heat. It was overpowering backstage in the dressing rooms and in the area adjacent to the auditorium where most of the sponsor booths were located. The sponsors were so upset with their location and the stifling heat that many vowed they would never come back to this location again. As a consequence, the contest will apparently be moved back to Roanoke next year, which means better facilities and hotel and a shopping and restaurant area nearby to give competitors and spectators something to do between contests.

Also, the Saturday night finals ran so late that the “banquet” hadn’t started when I went up to bed at 1:30 AM. Anyway, the press wasn’t invited to the banquet – as usual – so there wouldn’t have been any photos or interviews from the banquet in my coverage even had the event started earlier.

But these issues aside, the Jan Tana this year was well organized and should be considered a definite success.

BODYBUILDING

This year the contest was held using three weight classes rather than two for the first time. This strategy of weight classes for women pros is obviously working. There is no longer any incentive for smaller women to attempt to “bulk up” to be competitive against the bigger women. This, rather than artificial “guidelines” is the best way to produce the kind of sleek, aesthetic women the IFBB would like to see in the pro ranks. In fact, they might well consider introducing weight class in men’s pro bodybuilding, since there are so many male bodybuilders who seem to be coming into shows much heavier than they ought to with the expectation of having to stand next to giants like a Ronnie Coleman or Jay Cutler.

In terms of judging, with no “guidelines” apparently in sight, the results were largely uncontroversial, with perhaps some disagreement over the outcome of the heavyweight class, but nothing as outrageous as some of the officiating in women’s contests we have seen in the recent past.

LIGHTWEIGHTS

Fannie Barrios of Venezuela was the lightweight winner, with Sophie Duquette of Canada a not too distant second. Fannie’s physique has been improving the past two years, her presentation is excellent and she was a deserving winner. But Sophie would seem to have a good future in the sport as well. She has the gift of sensuality on stage that served bodybuilders like Sharon Bruneau and Tonya Knight so well. As her already good physique continues to improve, Sophie will definitely be a factor in the future.

MIDDLEWEIGHTS

Whatever happened to Nancy Lewis? We haven’t seen her in an IFBB show in a number of years. Well, she was alive and well in Lynchburg this August and simply blew away her competition. Nancy is gifted with a small waist. When she flexes it her waistline virtually seems to disappear. She exhibited great symmetry, shape and balance and she was in totally ripped condition. Nancy Lewis was no doubt the star of the show – first place votes right across the board. Very, very impressive.

Another impressive physique in the class was that of Vilma Caez. Vilma is also a bodybuilder with an excellent physique and a lot of sensuality on stage. She was probably in the best shape ever, and if Nancy Lewis hadn’t decided to come out of “retirement” (or whatever she might call it) Vilma would easily have taken the class.

As we all know about bodybuilding, you can only control how YOU look. You have no say about who might or might not be standing beside you on stage and what they might look like.

HEAVYWEIGHTS

This was the class where there was some disagreement about the outcome. In prejudging, it looked from the beginning as if Betty Pariso was the easy winner. She was more ripped “standing relaxed” than many were fully flexed. Her overall appearance, including skin color (with which she has had problems) were exactly right. But many of the call outs seemed to indicate that the judges weren’t seeing the contest in the same way as the photographers and reporters in the press section.

The call outs seemed to favor Beth Roberts. And it is easy to see how a judge could justify this. Beth was sleek and aesthetic, the way the IFBB seems to like it, but hard and muscular at the same time. But it did come as something of a surprise when Beth beat Betty in every round except free posing. Betty’s posing routine was excellent – doing a lot of mime in which she imitated other bodybuilders such as Mike Matarazzo (tongue out and all). But in an IFBB bodybuilding contest EVERY ROUND IS A PHYSIQUE ROUND. The judges are still supposed to be looking at physique, with presentation simply a means by which the competitor can emphasize strong points and draw attention away from weak areas. So judges who think a competitor has the better physique should, in almost all cases, give that competitor the free posing round as well.

(Note: there are no “symmetry,” “muscularity” or “posing” rounds in IFBB bodybuilding, no matter how the judges actually score the competition. EVERY ROUND IS A PHYSIQUE ROUND, and the judges should be looking at EVERY ASPECT OF THE PHYSIQUE IN EVERY ROUND. What we need is Moses to engrave these statements on some stone tablets so that the officials don’t forget them. It would also be a good idea if the head judge INSISTED that the “standing relaxed” pose be done exactly the same, with no twisting or turning, in all four directions. Why is something so simple so hard to enforce?)

Beth Roberts ended up winning the class by a relatively small margin. Quite honestly, most of those I talked to would have had her second. However, that said, I would expect Beth to have a great future in bodybuilding. She is perhaps a couple of years behind somebody like Betty in terms of muscle density and maturity. But her expectations are open ended. Starting with the physique she exhibited in Lynchburg she could easily develop to be one of the top women in the sport – in terms of physique and overall aesthetic appeal as well. Certainly, a reasonable person could have picked her to win the class without being open to criticism.

(Note: Speaking of being “reasonable,” if you want to totally discredit at least some the judges have them take the mike after the contest and explain why they voted as they did. For instance, one judge said he didn’t select Betty for first because she “wasn’t hard enough.” Not hard enough??? No wonder the IFBB won’t release the individual judging scores for each round as the NPC does. Some of these people have good reason to hide.)

THE OVERALL

When Fannie Barrios, Nancy Lewis and Beth Roberts came out on stage for the overall, I saw one judge immediately mark down his vote and pass it to the head judge. The judge was not being premature – it was pretty much that easy. If Nancy Lewis can come to the Ms. Olympia in the same kind of shape she was at the Jan Tana (not an easy turnaround to make) she will definitely be a factor. However, the Ms. Olympia this year will be held using only two classes not three (that has to change next year) and that will put 137 pound Nancy in the heavyweight class – up against Lenda Murray, Yaxeni Oriquen and Iris Kyle, very stiff competition indeed. With a middleweight class, Nancy would definitely be a factor for the title; as a heavyweight, she is going to have her work cut out for her.

But even if Nancy Lewis can’t beat the best heavyweights at the Olympia (and we don’t know for sure) if she shows up looking her best she is hardly going to embarrass herself. She has done the sport and the audience a huge favor by coming back into the sport and showing everyone how it ought to be done.