Are you buff enough?
Break out your oil and start practicing your poses because the Northern Marianas Body Building Federation Championships are back after a four-year absence, and this event will be featuring some of Saipan’s biggest competitors.
Seven of the island’s most serious weightlifters will be going head-to-head to determine who best meets the judge’s image of physical perfection. The criteria for the contestants will be optimum shape, symmetry, how cut their muscles appear and the visible striations of the muscles.
Entered into the contest this year are several new faces along with a seasoned veteran. Jonmarch Ong, Harvey Simpson, Jeff Boyer, Stanley Iakopo, Joe Ngiraibuuch, Danny Quitugua and Vicente T. Salas round out the crowd of shape shifters.
The championship is also a sanctioned event by the International Federation of Body Building—the same organization that oversees the Mr. Olympia and Mr. Universe competitions.
The athletes will compete in one of three categories; light (70k), middle (80k), and heavy (90k) based upon their weight. The competitors will have to perform a variety of mandatory poses for the judges, followed by 90 seconds of individual poses set to music that is sure to entertain as well as show off the results of their hard work.
“That’s one of the reasons that we are having this competition. Many people who workout reach their goals and have nowhere else to go. They can easily find themselves slipping into laziness. This gives them some incentive to get to the next step, to achieve new goals,” said one of the event coordinators Josephine Togawa-Plinske.
Another one of the reasons is to promote better health through fitness in the CNMI. Togawa-Plinske went on to describe the benefits of exercise and the dangers of an unhealthy lifestyle. She went on to explain that Type-2 Diabetes is a disease found only in those that reach levels of morbid obesity, and that it is entirely preventable. Unfortunately, she said that even grade school students suffer from the effects as well.
Getting serious about health isn’t a problem for Quitugua. He works out everyday between roughly 90 minutes to two hours, but he admits that this week is the most crucial in preparing for the competition. He started lifting weights seriously six years ago when his friend, a fellow police officer, asked him if he wanted to work out.
“After that, I got hooked. Now, whenever I have spare time, I’m in the gym. It’s my main hobby,” said Quitugua.
Quitugua and the others will be competing for a number of prizes, to include a free three-month membership to Gold’s Gym in Garapan, not to mention the bragging rights.
The cost to witness the event is $10, and that not only gets you through the door, but also gives you the chance to win a free three-month membership at Gold’s Gym. You can pick up your tickets at Gold’s Gym, Megabyte, and U2 Collections or by showing up to the event and purchasing one at the door. It has been four years since the last competition, so be sure not to miss this event.
All of the poses will be struck at the Multi-Purpose building this Saturday, June 26, beginning at 6:30pm.
