Bodybuilding competition set for June 15

The CNMI’s annual bodybuilding competition is back—the 2024 Dee Clayton Classic and Northern Marianas Bodybuilding and Physique Federation Championships—on June 15 at the Saipan World Resort’s Taga Hall.

The show starts at 5pm and doors open at 4pm. Tickets are $30 while it’s $40 at the door.

Overall winners will then represent the CNMI and advance to the NPC Guam National Bodybuilding Championships on June 29, said Dee Clayton, president of the DC Classic.

This year’s edition has 17 categories which are teen bodybuilding, teen physique, teen bikini model, teen fitness, teen performance, bodybuilding, classic physique, men’s physique, master’s physique, women’s bodybuilding, figure, bikini, fitness, fitness pageant, mixed pairs, fitness performance, and wellness.

There are currently 18 competitors vying for the titles.

Sponsors of the event are Megabyte of Saipan, Tan Siu Lin Foundation, Gold’s Gym, Latte Built Gym, Saipan World Resort Taga Hall, Rozelle Printing, Top Notch, Power 99, Glushko’s Academy of Performing Arts, Foremost, Island Touch by Philip, and Coca-Cola Beverage Co., Division of Youth Services, Saipan & Northern Islands Municipal Council, and the Saipan Mayor’s Office.

In last year’s competition Filomenaleonisa Iakopo was the Figure overall champion and Cielo Long was the overall champion of the Bikini category.

The Men’s Physique overall title went to Enrico Valdez; Lorenzo Sanchez was the overall champion of the Classic Physique category; and Stanley Iakopo grabbed the overall championship in the Bodybuilding category.

In the short category of the Men’s Physique, first place went to Athan Taisague, and Sanchez took first place in the short division of the Classic Physique category and the overall championship.

First place in the tall category went to Daniel Matsunaga, and in the Bodybuilding category, Stanley took the overall title in the lightweight class; Sanchez in the bantamweight and Ralph Villas in the welterweight were the only competitors in their respective weight classes and took first place.

In the 2023 Pacific Games in Honiara, Solomon Islands, the CNMI won its first ever gold medal in bodybuilding after Christina Tudela dominated the field of the short-class model physique category.

The upcoming 2024 Micronesia Games in Majuro, Marshall Islands does not have bodybuilding on the program.