Photography and report by Andrew Carruthers, Editor-In-Chief
Date: 5th June 2010
Venue: Parow High School, Western Province
The 5th June 2010 marked the 10th anniversary of one of Cape Town's most popular shows - Muscle Mania. The day also marked the announcement, by Gavin and Bev Conlon, of their resignation from the IFBB Western Province Committee. After 17 years of service, Gavin announced his successor as Sakkie Changuion, with Deon Munnik in the Vice-Chairman position. Both of these guys are equally capable of running the federation's Western Province portfolio, and I personally can't wait to see the massive impact they are both going to have on the province in the near future. Gavin and Bev are now solely focussed on running IFBB South Africa and, with renewed spirit, are even more motivated to push the IFBB and bodybuilding in South Africa to new heights.
As with all IFBB Western Province shows, the 2010 Evox Muscle Mania was great. Evox came to the party with some truly awesome supplement and cash prizes. Local Evox director and well known radio personality, JP Naude was on hand as emcee of the event and did a brilliant job of keeping the crowd constantly entertained, as he always does. One of the best elements of the evening was how the show was formatted and the fact that it took place in a reasonable time frame. The days of long, drawn out shows are over, with line-ups now better suited to being quick and effective.
The quality of athletes that entered this competition was awesome. With pre-judging over in the morning the show was pure entertainment, with athletes performing their one minute routines and a one minute pose down, followed by prize giving to crown the relevant champions of each division. With the stress of pre-judging out of the way earlier in the day, it gave the entrants a better chance of entertaining the crowd - and that's exactly what they did!
Since the introduction of the bikini division to the IFBB this year, it is clear that the popularity of this specific line-up is on the rise. With a strong line-up present, It was great to see the girls strutting their stuff in this new and exciting division. Lee Mc Queen managed to secure first place, with what was easily the best conditioning I have seen her present to date. She is clearly an athlete who is finding her place in this division, so I'm looking forward to seeing her at SAs later this year, when she'll get the opportunity to stand against SAs best, in an all out battle for the title of IFBB South African bikini champion.
In the men's divisions, Martin Lewis found his way back to the competitive stage after a layoff of a few years, and the improvements he has been able to make are impressive. Standing in the over 90kg division, Martin presented a thick, muscular, yet well proportioned and hard physique that will cause waves at this year's IFBB South African Championships in KZN in September. Martin is a good all-rounder, but with tighter conditioning and a few modifications to some of his poses I have no doubt that he'll be challenging hard in the super-heavyweight division a bit later this year. With that said, Martin went on to win the overall trophy, placing ahead of up to 90kg category winner, Thembelani Dlodlo, who is also going to be a force to be reckoned with at this year's SA Championships.
The talent and the competitive spirit in WP is very inspiring and Muscle Evolution is always proud to be able to showcase such an event in our magazine. Well done to all the athletes that managed to secure victory, and we look forward to seeing you on stage again later this year. See you at the shows!
Results:
Novice
1 - Sivuyile Matomela
2 - Warren van Schalkwyk
3 - Siviwe Mohamed
Masters over 40
1 - Peter Holman
2 - Johan du Toit
3 - Terence Gibbon
Ladies Bikini
1 - Lee Mc Queen
2 - Sonja van Rooyen
3 - Natasha Gowar
Ladies Body Fitness
1 - Monique Hopley
2 - Alethea Borman
Wheelchair Division
1 - Ntsikelelo Mdlalana
Senior men up to 70kg
1 - Leytan Fortuin
2 - Fabian Campher
3 - Gareth Ward
Senior men up to 80kg
1 - Sivuyile Matomela
2 - Joey Koffman
3 - Warren van Schalkwyk
Senior men up to 90kg
1 - Thembelani Dlodlo
2 - Marc Misdorp
3 - Shawn du Plooy
Senior men over 90kg
1 - Martin Lewis
2 - Anton Duvenhage
3 - Johan du Toit
*All results correct, as supplied by the federation. Muscle Evolution takes no responsibility for errors or omissions.