Bodybuilding may very soon return to its years of dominance in Barbados, saysnewly re-elected president of the Barbados Amateur Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation (BABBFF), Dr. Alfred Sparman.In his first interview since his election victory over the weekend, Dr. Sparman detailed the plans for his new tenure which include an increased number of sports people attaining professional status, international exposure, further training for athletes and a supportive association. According to Sparman, the latter was at the crux of the potential success or failure of local sportspersons.“I can tell you right now, for 16 years the previous administration they couldn’t get pro-cards and we are doing it now. We got 12 pro-cards before the pandemic and 20 are up for grabs this year. [Bodybuilders] are serious but they were suppressed. The past administration was very biased, they were partial and so forth. So, . . . a lot of people were disenchanted with the sport but we came in and we are fair
Former three-times Mr Barbados Stevenson Belle and his team at Formula Body Tuning Centre are ready to hit the stage for the inaugural In-house/Inter-gym Bodybuilding and Fitness Competition which takes place Saturday, April 30 at the Wildey Gymnasium.No stranger to flexing his muscles over the years as a competitor and exhibitionist, Belle said the idea for this bodybuilding show stemmed from the fact that many youngsters seem to be losing interest in the sport and he believes this would be a great way to keep them motivated.“We found that the sport has dwindling interest in terms of the youngsters on the block that would usually come to the gym as a getaway to train and just to improve themselves. We found that they kind of fell off because of Covid and other situations that would have led up to people not being interested in it.“We saw a lot of people in the gym that had potential and the idea just came to ask them if they would be interested in doing a competition and they were