Look out Guys, The woman are taking over! Jr. Nationals Wrap Up
This past weekend June 17th and 18th once again the Grand Ballroom of the Chicago O'Hare Hyatt Hotel hosted the 2011 NPC Jr. Nationals and history was surely made. Though the availability of pecan pie boosted by Access Bodybuilding's' Aaron Singerman was missing, the talent in the Women's Divisions surely was not!
Stealing the show in the Female Bodybuilding Division was Light Heavyweight Judy Gaillard who became the first woman ever to win both the Jr. USAs overall and the Jr. Nationals overall in the same year. The record before that would be over 15 years ago by Carmen Brady who won the Jr. USA in 1993 and then the Jr. Nationals in 1994.
Judy Gaillard definitely earned that place in history with superior conditioning and making sure her frame was packed to the gills with mass. The only contender close to her level of conditioning was middleweight class winner Joey Lynn Bolek of Bolingbrook, Illinois with great structure, flaring quads and capped delts.
Judy came to Chicago this weekend from Ripley, Mississippi, which gave Mississippi it's first overall winner at the Jr. Nationals as well. Many questioned why Judy would enter both the Jr. USA and Jr. Nationals in the same year, but after 2009 and entering both events and not getting the score she expected, she aimed to double the mark on this industry this year and did she ever!
Unfortunately, even though history was made, Judy still remains to win her pro card and will need to enter either the NPC USA or the NPC Nationals to continue to make history.
Other competitors to note would be Heavyweight Class winner Mary Tolle from Georgia. She blew the audience away with her huge front quads and delts. Her package was said to be the most complete by Dave Palumbo during the Play-By-Play.
Lightweight class winner Cheryl Shelby of Dolton, Illinois came very polished looking and ready to play with easily winning her class.
Women's Physique:
This year's highly anticipated new "Physique" Division bought some very happy competitors out from behind the shadows of their unsatisfied placing's in the figure and bodybuilding divisions to their new home in Women's Physique. With it's debut at Jr. Nationals, it was nice to see the judges setting the standard for what they are looking for in this division. It looks like the judges have decided to not go for the extreme muscle of female bodybuilding or the too soft pumped up figure girl look, but a fine balance of muscle and conditioning. They are rewarding well trained, conditioned feminine muscle. A statement was truly made at this show by the judging panel. They want girls with shape!
This show was divided into two classes with two pro cards being awarded to Jennifer Robinson and overall class B winner Jillian Reville. Jillian came off stage ecstatic on her win with placing 4th at Jr. USAs just a few weeks prior. She decided to fill out a bit more and be a little less striated by changing her diet, but keeping to the same training and cardio protocol and it showed. Jillian will be taking the year off to bring up her arms and is awaiting her next show in February of 2012.
The statement was fully made and driven home with the overall winner Jennifer Robinson who hails from Bartlett, Tennessee and works full time for the Memphis Police Department. Though she enjoys being out in the field, her transition to desk work gave her more time to focus on her dieting and training and that was apparent this weekend at Junior Nationals. Her stage presence was beyond impressive.
With her tiny waist and wide shoulders, Jennifer had been competing in figure for the past four years, completing 8 shows just last year. She finally found her home here in the Woman's Physique division though after being told she was ‘too muscular' for figure. Jennifer plans on continuing her training with Chris Cottie of Next Level Training and will be taking this next year to improve and keep a close eye on the shows to tailor her diet and training to align with what the judging panel will be rewarding so she can continue her rise to the top.
Figure:
History was made once again in the NPC at the 2011 Jr. Nationals with the fact that for the first time all figure class winners were African-American. Pro Cards were awarded to: Candice Lewis, Tiffany Archer, Vicki Counts and Gloria Keplinger. The overall winner the gorgeous Candice Lewis brought a very polished look from top to bottom with a streamline physique and a very small waist.
Fitness:
Though it seems that the fitness division was overshadowed by Women's Physique, Nichole Venzara captivated the audience with her Hawaiian Islands costume and her incredible tumbling technical ability. Fitness is said to be judge by physique conditioning with consideration of the routines and Nichole nailed it in all aspects.
A close contender was Class C winner Michelle Gales who flew onto the stage with motivating high flying tumbling to grab the audience's attention. Her chosen Jamaican Island Girl complete with ORANGE CRUSH T-shirt let her easily show off her athletic and dynamic ability with her strength moves to win the crowd over and obviously the judging panel.
Bikini:
The clearest winner of the night however would have to be Bikini Class B winner and overall bikini champion India Paulio who possessed the TOTAL package. Emotions ran high for India to finally be awarded her pro card and credited much of her win to CJ's Elite Custom Suits with custom connectors molded special just for her suit. The shocking thing to note about India, isn't how extremely firm and tight she is uniformly all around, but that she cracks down on criminals as well in sunny Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Her peppy and energetic spirit just radiated though the crowd. India, may be considering moving forward to the Tampa Pro.
Pro cards in Bikini were also awarded to Team Bombshells' Diana Grahm, Tiffany Marie Boydson Class A winner, and the Co-Host of Access Bodybuilding and Muscle Girls Inc Cristina Vujnich who credits her win to IFBB pro Mike Liberatore.
Overall the night was a complete success and many competitors were relieved to finally get rewarded for all their hard work.
Great Job Ladies!
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