2012 Los Angeles Pro Grand Prix
Culver City, April 14th: The history of the new Physique division for women may is still in its infancy, but the field for this most recent event helped raise the competitive bar with a decidedly improved group of competitors that also featured a broad range in the variety of their collective physiques. With contestants ranging in height from 4-11 ¾ to 5-9 in addition to entrants making their pro debut, to highly decorated competitors who have had past experience at events as prestigious of the Ms. Olympia and Ms. International, the competitive nature of these Physique events is heating up quickly. Promoted by Jon Lindsay and staged at the Veteran's Auditorium in Culver City, this first annual Los Angeles Grand Prix featured a full complement of amateur events as well as the Pro Men's and Women's Physique divisions, with a total number of entries topping 400 – 16 of which filled the field for the women's Physique division.
KARIN KIMURA WINS GOVERNOR'S CUP PHYSIQUE
Sacramento, California, March 24: The California Governor's Cup became the third contest in a calendar month to feature a Pro Physique division, and like the prior two events, this competition produced another new winner. Like the inaugural Desert Muscle Classic in February and the more recent St. Louis Pro a week prior to this contest, the field was, again, of the compact variety with just nine contestants competing.
St. Louis, Missouri, March 17: The second edition of the new Pro Physique division competitions for 2012 was propelled this weekend by 1st Phorm and promoters Jack and Ann Titone. Staged at the Busch Student Center on the campus of St. Louis University, once again the air was filled with fan curiosity as to what the outcome would bring. With so many potential pro competitors apparently still quietly playing the wait-and-see game and just how judges are reacting to what they see on stage, a small contingent of nine contestants took the next step in helping form the early foundations of how this division will proceed.
Columbus, Ohio, March 2: Just when you thought the Ms. International would be just another predictable contest with Iris Kyle pummeling her challengers into submission with her usual otherworldly level of muscular conditioning, the roof fell in just two weeks before the Arnold Classic when it was announced that the six-time Ms. I winner had suffered a leg injury that would keep her out of the 2012 edition of this storied event.
KARINA RETURNS !
If the name Karina Nascimento doesn't ring an immediate bell, it's understandable, especially if you have only come to follow women's bodybuilding in the last five years. But make no mistake, she was an impressive Brazilian import at the turn of the millennium.
Exotic, sultry and looking like she walked straight off the beaches of Rio, Karina Nascimento was eye-catching at 5-4 and weighing at the 130-pound mark for her first contest efforts.
Living, at the time, in the Dallas, Texas area, Nascimento first surfaced at the NPC Ronnie Coleman Classic in 1999. She won the overall title. A year later she traveled to Stillwater, Oklahoma, and took the overall title at a contest called the Iron Games. Later in 2000 she showed up at the NPC Ironmaiden (now the Excalibur) and won the HW and Overall crowns. “Jon Lindsay was the promoter of that contest,” recalls Nascimento. “And he was very encouraging to me about the potential he saw in my physique and how far I could take it”.
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