The Central American Body Building Championships will be held in Belize tomorrow. Seven countries were expected to participate but due to money constraints, only four will make it. Those participating countries are Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and host country Belize. 60 athletes will compete in 17 categories. President of the Caribbean and Central American Federation Giovanni Arendsz and Chairman of Belize's Fitness Federation Alfred McKenzie say even with only four countries, the show must and will go on.
Giovanni Arendsz,
"There are seven countries that are in Central America but we only have four countries coming to Belize for this competition. We have approximately about 60 competitors and I think it is very good because the Central America, we are trying to bring it back alive."
Alfred McKenzie, Chairman - BBFF
"We have about 10 categories including master's and junior's. Belize will be taking part in most of the categories and I hope that we will do as good as we feel."
Giovanni Arendsz,
"17 categories so we are going to have master's, junior's, 65k, 80k, 85k, 90k, 95k and heavy weight."
The weigh in is tonight and the semi-finals will begin 9 am at the Bliss Center. The finals begin at 6 pm. 15 Belizeans will be competing and at the top of the list are Mr. Belize Dion Danderson and all around athlete Gina Lovell.
Speaking to us this evening, both were cautiously optimistic about their chances.
Dion Danderson, Mr. Belize
"I am confident that I will win a medal and I will try to do my best to keep the gold at home and hopefully the other team members will do the same as I do. It has been a short time to prepare for this championship and its been kind of wrong. It is a very short period of time and so I just have to take my time and prepare for that."
Gina Lovell, Competitor
"I am quite excited. I have been doing some gym working, basically repetitions and toning. I might get a bronze medal because these girls are small and basically it is not bodybuilding I am going up against, its body figure and body figure is basically like a pageant and less muscles."
Organizers say there will be random drug testing during the competition.
