BODYBUILDING?is crying out for young blood.
Last weekend’s Nature’s Discount-sponsored Mr Bridgetown and Mr Teenager contests were more proof, if any was needed, that the sport is on life support and badly in need of an injection to wake it up out of its deep slumber.
Joseph “Runt” Bourne is walking tall after finally capturing Mr Bridgetown, his first win on the muscle stage in 22 years following his capture of the Mr St Michael in 1992, but truth is, the top two in Mr Bridgetown don’t represent the future of the sport.
Bourne is 48 and second-placed Michael Worrell is 54.
While the two oldest men in the field were taking the top two places, the two youngest men in the six-man line-up were occupying the last two slots.
Nicholas Benjamin, 24, was fifth and 22-year-old Jonathan Nana, a former Mr Schoolboy and Mr Teenager, sixth and last.
That hardly inspires optimism for the future, but what is more worrying is that the Mr Teenager contest was shockingly poor with all three entrants not even being close to being ready.
National Sports Council (NSC) bodybuilding coach, Valence Humphrey, the 1984 Mr Teenager winner, must know he has plenty of work over the next few years to unearth those with the structure and potential to go far.
Humphrey can’t do it alone. The Barbados Amateur Bodybuilding and?Fitness Federation (BABBFF) can ill afford to sit back and allow the sport to move on auto pilot. They should have a youth arm that is entrusted with the responsibility of spotting and developing young talent.
What has happened to the likes of Dario Bryan, Devon Franklyn, Matthew Watson and Kamal Sealy, all of whom have shown some promise as promising teens. Watson and Sealy spent Saturday night at Combermere’s Major Noot Hall backstage watching, rather than being on stage competing.
Outside of reigning Mr Barbados Ramon Broomes, Bryan, winner of back-to-back Mr Teenager crowns in 2009 and 2010, is probably the best of the young guns in the country but he hasn’t graced the stage in the last three years.
The juniors is the nursery of any sport, and if bodybuilding is to grow, the young talent unearthed at contests like Mr Schoolboy and Mr Teenager are to come through and make their way to the national level.
The priority for the stakeholders is to try and build a junior programme. It seems many moons ago since we had seven and eight quality juniors on stage at the same time.
On another note, the time has come for the federation to recognize those who have made an indelible mark on the sport.
The time has come for the BABBFF?to present special free passes to Darcy Beckles, Loftus Roach, Albert Scantlebury, Roger “The Black Prince”?Sealy, Andy Forde and others to attend the sport they have given so much too.
It is no coincidence that none of them showed up at Combermere over the weekend. The federation should put things in place to ensure that these champions are treated with respect and given their due when the Nationals come around in August.
