Tobago Body Building Competition on this weekend

JUNIOR national champion Haron Henry will rival one of the home-town favourites in Kern Perry and several other headline acts on Saturday, at the second edition of Tobago’s Body Building Competition, hosted by Kelton Thomas’s Foundation Gym.
The event, carded for an 8 pm start at Bishop’s High, Scarborough, is expected to feature about 35 amateur body-builders from both islands.

It is sanctioned by the TT Bodybuilding Federation (TTBF) and the International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB).
TT’s Perry Jerome, the region’s highest qualified judge, will lead the officiating panel.
There are traditional categories in men’s light, middle, light heavyweight and heavyweight, along with Men’s Physique A, B and C, and the Tobago Men’s Physique Open division.

There is also a Tobago Women’s Physique Open category, along with the Women’s Physique, Women’s Bikini and Women’s Figure.
Giselle Sergeant, one of Tobago’s first competitive body-builders, who debuted with a runner-up finish at in the women’s physique in 2017, will return and vie for the top prize.
There are cash prizes of $3,000 for the winners of each division, with the runners-up and third place finishers receiving $2,000 and $1,000, respectively, as well as gold, silver and bronze medals.

The event is organised by Kelton Thomas, the foundation’s namesake, who a semi-retired IFBB elite professional and former national team captain. Although his intention is to host the event annually, an injury prevented him from hosting it for a second year running, last year.
“The reason it’s coming so early in the year is because it was supposed to be October last year, but unfortunately I had a back operation in the US last year, so I was unable to do the (operations)...So we postponed for the first available opportunity,” said Thomas.

An eight-man team of body-builders from Grenada, who made plans to attend have had to cancel their trip because of an apparent mix-up in communication.
Thomas said the Grenada team thought the event was cancelled and may have been confused with another body-building event – the Sport World Classic – which was, in fact, cancelled.
“So I think they for the wrong message. Because of that the proper ticketing arrangements were not made, and by the time they were ready to book their tickets, the price of the flights had gone up and it would have proved a bit too expensive for the team to travel with accommodation and so on.”
Nevertheless, Thomas said he once again expects keen competition in all divisions, but more-so in the physique categories, while the novice category will witness several up and coming athletes making their competitive debut.

“You have a lot of the first timers (in the) novice category; guys who have never been on a stage yet. So we expect them to be a bit nervous but they have been in training and getting themselves together. We have a number of novices from Tobago as well.
There will be an “overall showdown” between competitors from Tobago and Trinidad, as well as a strong-man competition, consisting of bench press and dead lifts during the half-time show.
Thomas said he is hoping First Citizens Sports Foundation senior body-building nominee, Krystal Khan, who is on a journey toward professional status, will make a guest appearance.
Asked for his own status as a professional body-builder, Thomas said: “I’m hoping to do my next competition, hopefully in 2021, so I’m hoping that by that time, I should be on the pro circuit competing.