Wennerstrom's 2012 Europa Show of Champions Report:
PATRICIA MELLO : FIVE FOOT NINE AND SHE IS FINE!
Orlando, Florida, April 27-28: Okay, so there have now been five Pro Physique division contests this year, and as might be expected, this fifth edition was notably different than the prior four. For starters, it was the largest event thus far with 21 entries and the range of the field included six international entrants, several contestants making their debut at a Physique division event, and of course the stalwart Marina Lopez entering her fifth Physique contest as the only competitor who has entered all five.
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”.
IS BIGGER BEST IN WOMEN'S BODYBUILDING ?
The answer to the question in the title of this article could be answered with a simple...or maybe not so simple..... NO!
With the NPC Nationals just finished for 2011, the question was raised to me again as it has been for many years. Is it better to be bigger? Should I be the biggest in the heavyweight class to be noticed? Is size really important? Don't heavyweights always seem to win the overall. Don't you have to be big to ever hope to be competitive in the pro ranks? And of course all of the above mentioned questions depend on just what an individual perceives as 'big'.
2011 NPC Women's Bodybuilding Nationals
Miami Beach, Florida, November 19th: My first inclination for a title to this year's NPC Nationals was 'GIANT', but then I realized that had already been used many years ago. GIANT was a sprawling epic of a motion picture that starred James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson in 1956. On the other hand the 2011 NPC Nationals was a sprawling epic in itself and certainly deserving of the title. With a total number of contestants that was announced at 943, most everyone's guess was somewhere between 900 and 1,000. Even the joyous promoters were overwhelmed. In the history of the NPC, this year's Nationals is by far the largest event ever. And nestled comfortably among the many men's and women's divisions, women's bodybuilding contributed 48 contestants in four weight classes and an outcome that would pass along four new qualifiers to the IFBB pro division.
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