No national representation at this year’s CAC

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PRO of the Antigua and Barbuda Amateur Bodybuilding & Weightlifting Federation, Melissa Seaforth
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By Neto Baptiste

Antigua and Barbuda will not be represented at this year’s Central American & Caribbean (CAC) Bodybuilding Championships slated for this weekend in San Salvador, El Salvador.

This was revealed by PRO of the Antigua and Barbuda Amateur Bodybuilding & Weightlifting Federation, Melissa Seaforth, who said there were two major factors that played on the development. One of these is that, initially, both the CAC championships and this year’s nationals were slated for the same weekend.

“The date of our nationals would have dictated or influenced the decision of athletes making the choice between doing the nationals or going to the CAC Championships. The nationals are just about two weeks away on the 28th of August and CAC was actually happening the same weekend as nationals so athletes would have had a difficult choice in terms of do they want to do the national championships, which is actually right here at home giving that it’s Covid times and the travel protocols, the COVID testing that is required. I think the decision would have been, for most athletes, to do the national championships,” she said. 

A shift in dates for the nationals, however, meant that the event, which is usually both a fundraiser and qualifier for the CAC, would come two weeks after the Central American & Caribbean Championships.

Seaforth said athletes have however shown little interest in to the CAC.

“For example, we had a team going off to French St Maarten to compete and we were successful with a pro card so they have options on the table. It wasn’t a case where CAC was the only option to go for the pro card,” the professional fitness athlete said.

Vice president of the bodybuilding & weightlifting federation, Kimberly Percival, further explained the shift in the dates for this year’s nationals.

“Gyms closed this year and we didn’t want the athletes to end up in a tighter [squeeze] to try and have nationals, giving that a lot of them were already trying to push through and still cross the stage. Additionally, where it is being held, there was a matter of skepticism and concern as to how many people would actually be willing to make that journey giving the current climate with Covid,” she said.

The CAC Championships will run from August 12 to August 16.

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