By Neto Baptiste
Ambassador Kimberly Percival rounded off her stellar year with triumph in the Bikini Fitness category of the 2024 IFBB Pro Chile held over the weekend.
Competing against nine other professionals from across the globe, the Antiguan claimed the top spot to finish ahead of Germany’s Franziska Lohberger and Brazil’s Flavia Carneiro Mendes who finished second and third, respectively. Poland’s Anna Wozniakowska and Mexico’s Yissel Leon rounded off the top five.
Speaking with Observer media, Percival said her aim is to firmly place her name and the country on the global map where bodybuilding is concerned.
“A big part of what drives me is creating a legacy for Kimberly, form my last name, for my sport, for Antigua and Barbuda and just helping to elevate bodybuilding even further and I can happily say that going into these two shows that the goal was definitely to add two more wins to my belt. It feels really good to have planned for that and successfully achieved that and just contributed a little bit more to my legacy,” she said.
Percival’s triumph in Chile comes on the heels of victory at the IFBB Pro Cancun 2024 last weekend and some two weeks after she would have grabbed silver in the IFBB Night if Champions held in London.
On October 21, Percival topped the IFBB Pro Gran Gala Di Saint Vincent, just one week after she won the IFBB Elite Pro World Championship at the Arnold Classic Europe. Following her dominance at the Pro Cancun in October, Percival signalled that the Chile event would be her last for the year.
The athlete said having won 99 percent of her competitions this fall is a gratifying feeling.
“Coming out of my five fall shows with four first places and one second place is just the icing on the cake. This year was the most shows I’ve done in one year being sick. I really pushed myself and I feel like I’ve definitely been rewarded and it is really gratifying to be able to go out across the globe and consistently perform and be consistently rewarded and placed. It really just shows the calibre of effort and the calibre of athlete I am and what Antigua is bringing to the stage to be able to stand in front of that many varying panels and still consistently come out with that sort of success,” she said.
Percival’s dominance has significantly boosted her chance of winning a fifth straight Sportswoman of the Year Award.
