{"id":262960,"date":"2017-10-24T06:06:51","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T20:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=262960"},"modified":"2017-10-24T06:06:51","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T20:06:51","slug":"mendiola-wins-first-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/mendiola-wins-first-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Mendiola wins first title"},"content":{"rendered":"
Don Mendiola poses for the judges during last Saturday\u2019s Dee Clayton Classic at the Charley\u2019s Cabaret of Pacific Islands Club-Saipan. (Jon Perez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After falling short in previous tournaments the last three years, Don Mendiola finally won his first championship.<\/p>\n

Mendiola, who would either end up second or third in the past competitions he joined, was in Cloud 9 after taking his first overall title and middleweight crown in the bodybuilding event of the 2017 Dee Clayton Classic last Saturday at the Pacific Islands Club-Saipan\u2019s Charley\u2019s Cabaret. He then hopes the win in last weekend\u2019s contest would spill over to his next competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I step on stage, I either won second or third place. I came in third in both the Michelob Ultra in Guam and the Ikaika Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii. This year was the first time I won an overall championship,\u201d Mendiola told Saipan Tribune after his morning workout at Latte Fitness Gym in San Jose yesterday.<\/p>\n

Now, the 23-year-old personal trainer at Latte Fitness said he\u2019s setting his sights on another tournament in Hawaii\u2014the Shawn Ray\u2019s Hawaiian Classic National Qualifier set on Nov. 4 at The Modern Honolulu.<\/p>\n

Mendiola will be seeing action in next month\u2019s competition after hearing about the Shawn Ray Classic from Dee Clayton, Latte Built owner Derek Cutting, and fellow bodybuilders Aaron Tomokane and Gerald Galang. Both Tomokane and Galang joined last year\u2019s Shawn Ray Classic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had fun competing in Hawaii [Ikaika Classic]. Now, I\u2019m going back there on Nov. 1 for the Shawn Ray Classic. And I plan on taking home first place in my weight category,\u201d said Mendiola, who competes in the middleweight division.<\/p>\n

Cutting has helped Mendiola since he arrived on Saipan in 2015. \u201c[Derek] started training me back when I competed in the Pacific Games in Papua New Guinea. I knew for a fact that he was the person who could push me through workouts and his diet plans did wonders for me,\u201d Mendiola saId.<\/p>\n

\u201cI train to win and improve myself as a person. These have been my motivations. I\u2019ve always been competitive and driven to reach my goals. I used to be a really fat and unhealthy kid back in high school so I decided to change my life once I started playing sports,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He was into running track and marathon, cycling, and mixed martial arts before he got into bodybuilding through the help of Tomokane, who encouraged him to try the sport in September 2014. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was a track star. I ran track every day for three years. I also did three full marathons here on the island and two Hell of the Marianas. I also fought and trained in Trech Tech under Cuki Alvarez. Aaron told me to try out the physique category first. I was already training for a fight back then so I decided to try it since I was already in shape,\u201d the newly crowned champion added.<\/p>\n

Mendiola placed third in the physique division in the Dee Clayton Classic in his first try and he had so much fun training and competing that he decided to concentrate more in bodybuilding. <\/p>\n

\u201cI decided to take lifting more seriously and step up my game, and do bodybuilding in 2015.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, he\u2019s encouraging others, especially the youth, to keep an active and healthy lifestyle. And although \u2018health is wealth\u2019 may be an old saying, it is still relevant today.<\/p>\n

\u201cBodybuilding may be a tough sport to be in, but it can also be really fun too. Lifting is just very addicting once you start seeing the results or once you feel yourself getting stronger throughout the months and years of hard work and dedication,\u201d said Mendiola. \u201cSo, I encourage everyone to join a gym. You don\u2019t have to work out two to three hours a day. All it takes is about 45 minutes to an hour of training and follow a strict diet plan. It will change your life for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mendiola thanked all his supporters, especially his family and friends, for helping him become successful in bodybuilding.<\/p>\n

\u201cShout out to Dee for being a great sponsor and wonderful friend to me. To Derek, for always pushing me to become better and stronger every time I\u2019m on stage. To Frank Cabrera of MAGAS for sponsoring me since day one of my career. All I can say is all the hard work that I put in will never go unseen. You could also follow me on my YouTube channel, @dondabuilder670. I usually make video logs of my journey in bodybuilding and fitness,\u201d Mendiola said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After falling short in previous tournaments the last three years, Don Mendiola finally won his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":262973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-262960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}