Articles The Wennerstrom Report Gulf States Contest Becomes Greater and Greater with Strong WPD!
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| WPD Winner Tamee Marie |
Not enough is said about bodybuilding contests that have established long traditions, but when it comes to the deep South, the annual Greater Gulf States held in New Orleans (actually in the suburb of Metairie) has its firm roots dating back as far as the 80s.
With longstanding promoters Luke and Robin Tesvich, this contest has been held for many years at the Best Western Landmark Hotel Ballroom and is one of the major events on the annual contest schedule in the South. This year the contest was held on June 20-21 with the women competing on the 20th followed by the men on the 21st with both NPC amateurs and IFBB pros competing.
More recently, the pro Women's Physique Division was added and has experienced encouraging growth since being added in 2012. The first contest drew a modest field of just nine contestants with Tamee Marie winning the inaugural event. Last year, the show swelled to 16 competitors as Tycie Coppett captured her first pro win with a 1-point victory over Mindi O'Brien. Later in the year Coppett would move on to the Physique Olympia and claim the runner-up placing behind Dana Linn Bailey.
This year, again, the field of contestants took another big jump in entries as 26 women representing 16 states, Canada and the Netherlands joined to flex for a potential automatic qualifying spot at the Olympia or add points to their Qualification Series totals. In addition, $3,500 in prize money was also up for grabs. The event sponsors who helped make the show possible included MusclePharm and Power Shack. The Pre-Contest Two-Way Battle That Became a Threesome Virtually every prognosticator of the WPD pro competition saw what they thought would be a spirited race for the title between Nebraska's Tamee Marie and Florida's Karina Nascimento. The two competitors were practically joined at the hip with similarities. During their three-year pro WPD careers, both Nascimento and Marie had each won three previous events. Both competed in last year's Physique Olympia with Nascimento placing 8th and Marie finishing 9th. And as fate would have it – and as the standard lineups at pro events take the stage in alphabetical order – the duo was standing side-by-side from the first moments they appeared. The battle was on between the two, right? Well, yes… and then as the prejudging got underway, maybe not.
Serving as head judge, Sandi Williamson's first call-out included just four competitors – Nascimento, Marie, Leila Thompson and Gloria Faulls. Nascimento and Marie were moved to the middle. No great surprise. An initial evaluation of the twosome showed the dramatic difference between them in sheer bodily size.
Marie was a statuesque 5-9 weighing 147 pounds, while Nascimento gave away five inches in height at 5-4 and 15 pounds of bodyweight at 132. Both however, were beautifully balanced overall. Both also carried a strong stage presence – Marie with a dazzling showgirl look, and Nascimento with her patented exotic Brazilian flare.
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| Second: Leila Thompson |
Meanwhile, North Carolina's Leila Thompson was making inroads by forcing judges to take another look at her presence in the lineup and the physicality she was putting on display. The judges looked again and again. Soon it was a threesome flexing for the top placing.
For Marie, the Greater Gulf States contest is a familiar one. In fact she has competed in all three years of the WPD division. This year her goal was to equal her win from the 2012 event and erase the memory of the third-place finish she scored last year. She was well on her way by presenting an impeccable overall look on stage with nice skin tone, a hairstyle that framed her face, and a great suit selection. The rest was left to showing her muscular shapes and making them visible – a mission that was accomplished with spot-on contest prep. She was going to be very difficult to beat. And when the judging totals had been finalized, Tamee Marie was selected as the unanimous winner with a total of 3 points.
In winning she accepted a check for $2,000 as the winning prize money. The victory was her fourth over the past three years and she joins Juliana Malacarne and Sabrina Taylor as other pro WPD competitors who have also won four pro events. For Marie, it was also a second consecutive win after taking top honors at the Omaha Pro just two weeks earlier. She'll be looking to improve on that 9th-place finish at last year's Olympia come September. With Leila Thompson now wedging her way into a higher placement, Nascimento was seemingly losing some momentum. For Thompson, her first round call-out put her in a new stratosphere at the pro level. With just two previous WPD events on her resume and neither placing her within the top ten, she was the quintessential example of a contest's 'unknown entity' who was 'flying under the radar'.
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| Third: Karina Nascimento |
In fact, Thompson's last contest – the Optimum Classic – also held in Louisiana, found her placing in the dreaded 'tie for 16th place' position. A year earlier her pro debut found her placing 12th at the Wings of Strength Pro in Chicago after winning the overall NPC Junior USA earlier in 2013. Clearly, Thompson had made considerable improvements between May 24th and this event, primarily in stage presence and a fuller level of muscular volume and its visibility.
The work Thompson put in over the past month pulled her above Nascimento into the runner-up spot in the final tallies. Her jettison from 16th to 2nd in one month continues to show how fluid the placings at these WPD events continue to be. Virtually anything can happen and often does. For the effort, she pocketed a check for $1,000 in prize money. With Nascimento settling for a third-place finish, she still remains in the Qualification Series points race, but it is unclear as to whether she will continue to enter events between now and the September Olympia date.
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| Fourth: Gloria Faulls |
Carrying a beautiful overall look and of course that typically perfect 'gluteal arrangement', Nascimento – who was the pro division's first-ever WPD winner at the Desert Muscle Classic in 2012, a top ten finisher at the inaugural Physique Olympia and a winner of three WPD events in the first two years of the division's existence – is left scrambling for points to re-qualify for this year's Olympia. She is, at the moment, the most graphic example of how far the evolution of the WPD division has traveled in a very short amount of time. Her prize money for third came to $500.
Placing fourth was New Jersey's Gloria Faulls. A very consistent competitor, Faulls was entering her 10th WPD event, and over the past three years she has placed in the top six on no less than seven occasions. Like Marie, Faulls has entered the Greater Gulf States all three times the event has offered this division. And the show has been kind to her, having placed fourth in 2012, sixth in 2013, and fourth again here. Faulls keeps herself in top call-outs and placings by displaying an evenly developed physique with nice muscle shapes and solid contest prep. She added two points to her Qualification Series total.
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| Fifth: Shelly Yakimchuk |
Rounding out the top five was Canada's Shelly Yakimchuk. Originally from Estevan, Saskatchewan, and now living in Las Vegas, the former Bodybuilder and Figure competitor earned her pro status at last year's IFBB North American Physique Championships with a runner-up finish in her height class. Making her pro debut at the Greater Gulf States, she was the only one of five contestants making their pro debut to crack the top five. At 5-5 1/2, Yakimchuk showed very nice structural balance and muscle shapes that were presented well due to her past experience in the Figure division. Her fifth-place finish earns her first point towards an Olympia qualification… a very respectable showing out of the gate.
The Rest of the Top Ten
6- Mascha Tieken, The Netherlands
7- Anne Marie Kam, Eugene, Oregon
8- Alisa Alday, Macon, Georgia
9- Leonie Rose, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
10- Rosella Joseph, Green Acres, Florida
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