Bodybuilding President: If everyone could do this, they would be on stage

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By Carlena Knight

President of the Antigua and Barbuda Bodybuilding and Weightlifting Federation (ABBWF) Dave George spoke highly of the sacrifices made by athletes in that sport in order to compete.

“It doesn’t matter if you place first, second, third, or tenth; as long as you cross that stage you are a champion in my book because you have done the work. If everyone could do this, [they] would be on stage.

“I keep saying that it’s a lifestyle. Unless you treat it as a lifestyle you are wasting your time. You can’t go into the gym and expect to put in three, four months of work and look like this. You have to put in the work once you would have made up your mind to cross that stage. The body of work that is required is intensive. It’s a level of discipline that comes like no other,” George said yesterday on the Good Morning JoJo Sports Show as he whipped up support for the national competition scheduled for next Saturday at the Multipurpose Cultural Centre.

He noted that preparation for the show is just about completed, but also spoke of the shortfall where sponsorship is concerned.

“We are just basically fine-tuning our check list right now by crossing our T’s and dotting our I’s and we as the executive have put in the hard work. It’s been intensive as well, very stressful especially when you call a corporate sponsor and they tell you no; you got to come up with an alternative plan so hopefully we get more ‘yesses’ before the week is done. But at the end of the day, you got to put in the work and administratively we are there.”

George concluded by speaking also about the camaraderie shown by all the athletes as, according to him, the Federation is a family.

“What happens is that when the athletes congregate, even though they are competing against each other, it’s a family, it’s a fraternity; and as Melissa [Seaforth] said, they offer advice and give each other pep talks and encouragement; because at the end of the day the biggest winner in this is the sport of bodybuilding. It’s not the individual, the sport is bigger than anyone of us. At the end of the day it’s all about coming together for one common goal to ensure that the sport of bodybuilding in Antigua and Barbuda stays alive.”

The national championships will see 60 athletes competing in various categories.

Tickets for the event – which starts 4 pm on August 24 – can be obtained from executive members and local gyms for a general admission of $60, and a preferred seating ticket for $80.

They can also be obtained via the Ticketing App for $70 and $90 respectively.

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