FBBUK@ NABBA Universe 2014

On October 26th the oldest bodybuilding show of them all, the NABBA Universe, took place at its long-time home of Southport on Merseyside. Since 1966, a Ms Universe has been crowned – 48 consecutive years by my reckoning – and Ms Universe 2014 was Brazil’s Dora Rodrigues. But, as always, there was a large contingent of fine British female physiques in the three “Figure” classes, doing their thing in their thongs.

TONED FIGURE

In recent years, this class has been the one where British women have enjoyed the most success, and this show was no exception, with Brits first and second.

You have to think that sooner or later that former UKBFF British Bikini champ Kelsey Yung (aka “TinkerKel”) will walk off with the winner’s trophy. She finished second (to the gorgeous Nicola Bentham) at the 2013 Universe, and also finished second (to Brazil’s Caroline Crozeta) at this year’s NABBA Worlds in Belfast in June. And here, once again, Barrow-in-Furness’ finest had to settle for second place, though the fact that she is the reigning NABBA Ms Britain is probably some consolation.

Beating Kelsey on this occasion was 26-year-old Charlotte MacGill from Bolton in Lancashire. Charlotte works (all these NABBA women are amateurs remember) as a sports rehab physio. It was only when she got her current job that she began training, inspired and encouraged by her bodybuilding boss, Stuart Cosgrove. He got me interested in weight training, she told a local newspaper after her win. I started to notice the changes in my body and went from there.

Within a year she had won the NABBA North-West show, and now has her first international title. Competing in international competitions is very rewarding and a lot of fun, she says. Especially so when you leave as the champ, I imagine!

TRAINED FIGURE II (short)

This class was packed with quality. This year’s and last year’s Overall Ms Universe winners (Dora Rodrigues and Italian NABBA veteran Flora Conte), the reigning NABBA Ms World (Auren Malvestiti of Brazil) and FMS fave Cinara Polido (with her involuntarily twitching glutes) made up the top four. However, two British women muscled their way into the placings, finishing in the same order as they had done at the NABBA Britain five months previously.

Corinne Ingman from Harlow in Essex was awarded 6th place. She’s a British powerlifting champion, a NABBA Figure competitor, and for her next trick she fancies taking on the UKBFF Physique class and gaining her pro card, apparently. Given the current trend towards muscularity in that class, she looks as if she has a great chance of making her mark there, which is slightly ironic when you learn that officials from the UKBFF once told her she was “too muscular” to be a Physique competitor!

I think Corinne looks like the kind of woman who’s prepared to strip down to the bare minimum and give everyone in the gym a good gander at her progress anytime she’s feeling nice and pumped. In other words, she looks like FMS‘ kind of woman. One to watch for sure – and you can do so via her (regularly updated) Instagram.

Sadly, there’s no video we can find of Corinne at the NABBA Universe, but we did find a clip of her routine at the NABBA Britain in May. So why not?

But we had the opposite problem for the woman who beat Corinne to the NABBA Britain title and finished one place above her again here. Despite an exhaustive search, we failed to turn up a single new picture of NABBA favourite Kay Goodwin that didn’t have a big bad watermark on it – though we did find video (see below). You may remember Kay from previous posts, when, among other things, we reported that she had moved category from Toned to Trained Figure this year.

Success has followed. In 2014 she won her first (regional) show in the class, took the Ms Britain title, and has finished as top Brit at both the NABBA Worlds and now the NABBA Universe. Guess more muscle suits her! I first caught the “bodybuilding bug” after going to see a friend compete in a show, Kay says. Seeing all the girls on stage, all glammed up looking fabulous and the physiques on display was inspiring and got me thinking “could I really do that?” Turns out she could. She really really could.

TRAINED FIGURE I (tall)

Northern Ireland’s positively Amazonian Linda Cassidy finished 5th in the taller of the two Trained Figure classes, and I can pretty much guarantee that though her routine (as with all NABBA routines) is over too quickly for my liking, you will not forget it once you’ve seen it. Linda is a personal trainer at The Columbia Gym in Banbridge, County Down, who specialises in “high risk” clients – ones who have been referred to the gym via their GP, that is. Seems to me having Linda put you through your paces would be pretty “high risk” to most male heart rates…

And finally, the familiar face of Wales’ most muscular female firefighter, Sarah Hallett, who placed 3rd, higher than any other British Trained Figure competitor.

She says she’s gone through some “big life changes this year”, but the package she brought to the Universe stage was just as hard and vascular as she always seems to be. Readers may be familiar with her work for Fit Vids, and I can assure you that if you do decide to put your hand in your pocket and fork out for the whole video set, you will be treated to some of the most insane vascularity you have ever seen. Highlights include the cameraman’s audible gasp as Sarah flexes her abs, and a seemingly never-ending set of bicep curls that leaves her entire upper body covered in pumping cord-like veins. Seriously, buy it (he said, shamelessly angling for a free Fit Vids pass!!!)

Sarah’s on Instagram

Congratulations to all the UK’s NABBA Universe women, whether they’ve made it into the post or not. We’ll be meeting one more on Friday, but in the meantime, enjoy!

FBBUK@ NABBA Worlds 2014

For the second time this week, FMS is at the recent NABBA Worlds, this time to praise the British women who were doing it in thongs in Belfast. No one was as successful as the Brazilians (see Sunday’s post), but there were podium places for UK women.

Runner-up to Caroline Crozeta in the Toned Figure category was the stunning Kelsey “Tinkerkel” Yung, a mother of two from Barrow (in the north-east of England). She and her husband have run a dance/martial arts studio there since 2007, and Kelsey teaches dance, fitness and kickboxing (she’s a black belt). NABBA is absolutely amazing, she says, [and] I absolutely love being a Toned Figure competitor.

Kelsey was also runner-up at last year’s NABBA Universe, and she arrived in Belfast fresh from having won the NABBA Britain title the weekend before. This was her third appearance at the Worlds, and her best result after two 4th places in 2012 and 2013.

Also in the Toned Figure class was the very beautiful Rebecca Maughan from Hull, who finished 4th. Rebecca, NABBA Miss Britain in 2013, and runner-up at the same show to Kelsey Yung in May this year, became interested in fitness a couple of years ago before a holiday to Ibiza. I really wanted to get toned to look good for the holiday, she says, and the quick-fix fitness plan became a desire to compete.

This isn’t a chore for me but a lifestyle, says Rebecca, and aged just 25, with a position as a “guru” at a major supplements company, a dream to become a professional fitness model, and those looks, FMS doesn’t imagine this will be the last we hear of her.

In the shorter of the two Trained Figure classes, best of the Brits was Kay Goodwin, previously on FMS after she had finished 2nd at last year’s NABBA Worlds. There she competed in Toned Figure, but made the switch to the more muscular category this year, promptly winning the NABBA North-East and Miss Britain titles in May.

Personally if I was ever told I would fare better in the trained class after all my prep and diet I would be gutted, Kay said last year when still a competing in Toned, which suggests to me that her move “up” is a decision she has made for herself. However, as is so often the case, there’s so little information about many of the UK’s top NABBA women available that why Kay has changed classes is not a question I can answer. Anyway, she has, and her two titles and a 4th at the Worlds indicates it was the right move. And, as far as I’m concerned, more muscle is always a good thing!

And finally, another 2nd place for Britain in the taller Trained Figure class, courtesy of Pamela Higgins, who had finished 4th behind Kay Goodwin at the British finals, but was clearly peaking for this show and can, in my unqualified opinion, count herself more than a bit unlucky not to have walked off with the category title at least.

Pam has been lifting for about six years now I reckon, having originally been inspired by her partner, a former bodybuilder himself, to start competing. British champ 2011 and 2012, it’s good to see Pamela, who, like Kelsey Yung (and Georgina McConnell, incidentally) hails from the north-west of England, back to her best.

Congratulations to Pamela, and to all the wonderful muscle women who represented Britain at the show. You might also like to check out UK NABBA veteran Cheryl Steele‘s routine, and (although Irish rather than British) FMS fave Sophia McNamara, who always delivers a routine that is an absolute treat to watch.

Enjoy!

FBBUK at the NABBA Worlds

At the beginning of June, a ‘Team GB’ that are, unlike their counterparts in so many other sports, almost utterly ignored by the media, made their way to Montecatini Terme (not a million miles from Florence) in Tuscany, where they did themselves and the country proud at one version of their sport’s World Championships. Again, completely ignored by the media, they returned to the UK, where they no doubt celebrated with family and friends, put their trophies on their mantelpieces, and carried on with their day jobs.

We are, of course, talking about the British competitors at the NABBA Worlds. FMS, as regular readers will know, does like his female NABBA competitors, the ladies who do it in thongs, amateurs one and all. So I hardly need an excuse, but if the mainstream media are going to ignore their achievements, then that in itself is reason enough to mention them here.

You’ll recall that NABBA classes are slightly different. Instead of ‘Bodybuilding’, we have ‘Physique’. And then NABBA has two ‘Figure’ classes, ‘Trained Figure’, which is more or less equivalent to NPC/IFBB Physique, and ‘Toned Figure’, which would be your NPC/IFBB ‘Figure’… You’ll get the idea!

Unfortunately, although Louise Baird competed for Britain last year, there was no British representative in the Physique (ie. Bodybuilding) class in 2013. In fact, there were only four contestants all told – a sad reflection on how female bodybuilding seems to be going. Perhaps next year we’ll be represented in that class again.

But there were Brits to spare in the other classes. In the taller Trained Figure class, Becky Williamson finished 5th, and Jody Shuttleworth was 6th.

Becky Williamson (BextaGlutes on Twitter), has been competing since 2005. Like so many of the NABBA athletes, she’s a mother and lives and trains in the North of England.

Becky Williamson (left), and Jody Shuttleworth

Jody has now competed for Britain at either the NABBA Worlds or NABBA Universe for five years in a row . Five years representing Britain at the highest level for an amateur in her sport and still virtually unknown to most of the country. It’s a crime!

Cheryl Steele finished 5th, and FMS‘  favourite driving instructor from Rochdale, Linda Gartside, came in 3rd in the shorter of the two Trained Figure classes.

You can also see Linda’s routine from a different angle, as well as other footage from the NABBA Worlds and lots of other interesting stuff on Linda’s excellent youtube channel. And if you want to know more about this amazing woman, check out her website or FMS’ tribute to her.

And while Becky, Jody and the lovely Linda were displaying their glutes as they should be displayed in a bodybuilding contest, Team GB were cleaning up in the Toned Figure class, taking the top five places.

Catherine Hosker-Brothers (left), and Kelsey Yung

In fifth, Catherine Hosker-Brothers, from Lancashire, who had placed 2nd in 2012. In fourth, and the same position as she had achieved in 2012, was Kelsey Yung, the reigning UKBFF Bikini champ. Third place went to Sally Knights, the Bradford hairdresser who some readers may remember from a previous NABBA-themed post.

Second place went to Kay Goodwin, for whom bodybuilding is very much a family affair. She trains along with her husband (an ex-pro rugby league player), and her son, Lewis, who is also a bodybuilder. Hard to believe when you look at the shape she’s in that this stunning woman is a 35-year-old mother.

When she’s not covered in oil and fake tan and showing off her glutes on stage, Kay’s probably training, and when she’s not doing that Kay works in customer relations for a bank. My kind of account manager!

And she’s yet another lady from the North of England – how much more proof do we need that Lancashire and Yorkshire are the places to be be for UK female muscle fans?! She’s only been competing since 2010, and finishing runner-up in Tuscany was by far the best result of her career to date.

And so finally to Britain’s newest NABBA World Champion, Adele Blake.

Adele is an ex-Royal Navy physical training instructor who left the service nine years ago and now works as a Nutrition Coach. She has always enjoyed the pursuit of fitness, weight training and martial arts, and says I aim to maintain a good strong physique not only to instil confidence in my clients but to feel good, healthy and happy!

Well, I think it’s safe to say she has achieved that and more. She was Ms NABBA South-East Britain in 2010 (finally, a southerner!) and repeated the feat again this year before her triumph at the Worlds.

Congratulations to Adele, and all the female members of Team GB for flying the flag and doing themselves and their country proud on the world stage yet again. Now back to the day jobs… And the gym!

Enjoy!