Women’s bodybuilding top three: 1) Brigita Brezovac, 2) Helen Bouchard, 3) Cathy LeFrancois.

Figure top three: 1) Candice Keene, 2) Terri Turner, 3) Gina Trochiana.

Bikini top three: 1) Dianna Dahlgren, 2) Jessica Jessie, 3) Diana Fields.

————————–

I hate being on deadline when things are happening—the excuse for not having recorded my sentiments regarding the IFBB Pro Bodybuilding Weekly events last weekend. Not that the world ended or anything, just that the developments down there in Tampa, Florida, were mighty interesting.

In the PBW Bikini event Team Universe sensation Nicole Nagrani continued her winning ways, trouncing the competition in her pro debut and leaving Jaime Baird to land in second again (she was runner-up at the Europa Show of Champions last spring and third at the Pittsburgh Pro). Third place in the lineup of 10 went to another hot new pro who got her card two weeks ago at the T.U., Vanessa Campbell, with all three earning invites to the Bikini Olympia in September.

Diana Fields in fourth and Kat Holmes rounded out the top five.

What’s so interesting about those developments? For one thing it sets up a showdown for the O with the season’s earlier sensation, Nathalia Melo. Those (like me) who were thinking Melo’s future as the first Big O bikini champ was assured may want to think again.

Also noteworthy for the return to competition of figure star Dina Al-Sabah, who managed sixth and should have no trouble getting into the swing of her division if she keeps going.

Interesting as all that was, it didn’t hold a candle to the drama in the PBW Women’s Bodybuilding battle, where another auspicious pro debut upset a greater expectation than that it was Jaime Baird’s time to move into the winner’s. The expectation was that New York Pro champ Cathy LeFrancois would be the big winner in what turned out to be a 28-woman lineup. The reality is, she got hustled, tussled and outmuscled by newcomer Brigita Brezovak, a Slovenian flexer who finished second at the World Championships in 2009 (above photo courtesy of rxmuscle.com.) Also by one-time middleweight champ Tina Chandler, who added some size and sizzle to her symmetry to surprise pretty much everyone by taking second. That left LeFrancois in third.

It looked like a great call to this far-off observer. Brezovak is the real deal—long, full muscles and plenty of ‘em; structure and proportion to die for and outstanding separation. She had more than enough of everything to challenge for the top spot, and the judges didn’t hesitate.

Their choice of Chandler for the runner-up Olympia qualification was also a good call. Much has been made of the fact that Tina has put on eight pounds of muscle since she turned pro at the ’07 NPC Nationals, but I thought it was her excellent conditioning that pushed her past LeFrancois in Tampa. More definition than perhaps she’s ever achieved gave the extra muscle maximum pop. She and Cathy were tied after the judging, but by evening the panel had made up its mind.

Helen Bouchard finished fourth, with Nicole Ball landing in the top five. Both those ladies were on their game, so you can imagine how deep the talent was in that big lineup.

As I write this, Brigita and Cathy are flexing it out with 18 others at the Europa Battle of Champions in Hartford, Connecticut; so we’ll see if this history repeats itself. [As you've undoubtedly noted above, it did].

A couple other items that did not escape my notice this week:

• Tracey Greenwood retired from competition. According to a press release from Fitness Management Group, the 41-year-old Delaware diva, who finished third at the Fitness Olympia last year and has been as high as second, has been dealing with lingering injuries and felt it was time to move on. Not that she’ll be far from our view—or our hearts. A college professor in her day job, Greenwood promotes three NPC shows and over the past year or so has slipped into a key expediter role at many big NPC and IFBB events.

• Davana Medina pulled out of the Battle of Champions Pro Bikini event. No reason was given (nor does she owe us one). The bottom line: We may see the first Fitness O champ on a pro bikini stage later this year, or we may not.

A couple of weeks ago, when I was writing the then-breaking item about Davana’s return to competition, I couldn’t help comparing it to a breaking news item of a few weeks before that: Monica Brant’s jumping from the IFBB (after all these years) to join Paul Dilett’s upstart Canadian World Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation. That item I did not get to blog about in a timely manner, as it occurred during the worst of last month’s deadline. Still, it was a pretty big story (I laughed…I cried…), and I didn’t mean to overlook it Now I read on the Web site that broke the story that everything that’s been said about Brant’s decision has already been said; so I guess I’ll keep my naughty thoughts to myself—at least until I talk with Mo.

Photos (from top): Brigita Brezovac (courtesy of Rxmuscle.com), Tracey Greenwood and Monica Brant.

Am I shocked? Pl-e-e-ase. Even if Medina and her people hadn’t been dropping hints for the past year or so, it wouldn’t have been surprising because of the never-retiring principle mentioned above. Also because she hung it up before her body had even begun to quit. I’m also not surprised that the 36-year-old is choosing bikini, although it’s kind of too bad. It would have been interesting to see someone with Davana’s structure and a little more muscle than Nicole Wilkins-Lee give the latter a real run for her money at the Figure Olympia.

Instead, Davana has been shedding muscle, but will it be enough? In bikini, having a killer body is only the beginning, and even in figure now the moves have gotten sassier. So the real question is, Does Davana have the stuff? As in sass, as in attitude, as in the ability to sell it on the runway just short of working a pole? Recently, I had a conversation with celebrated trainer Kim Oddo about the challenges (and fun) of helping bikini competitors bring out the sass. It really is different from figure prep. Fortunately for Davana, she’s chosen to work one of the physique world’s hottest movers and booty shakers, multi-time Fitness Olympia and Fitness International champ Adela Garcia. If anyone can help Medina pull out all the stops onstage it’s top chica Adela. That ought to give those Florida and California girls who have dominated pro bikini so far something to think about.

Notes: Adela’s training program is called O.F.F.—Overcome Fitness Fears; for info go to www.offchallenge.com. Davana is available for appearances, endorsements, interviews and modeling, contact FMG at fitnessdivasproductions@verizon.net

Photo: Davana Medina and Fitness Management Group’s J.M. Manion in April 2009. At that time the word was she was not planning on coming back. Never say never.

Another new pro, Josie Zamora, who beat Fallacara in the battle for the overall at the Junior Nationals last month, took fourth, while Gennifer Strobo, who’s qualified for the ’10 Olympia thanks to a couple of previous third-place finishes, rounded out the top five.

It was a big lineup—32 women took the stage—but not really the deepest we’ve seen this year. As I perused photos of all the competitors, I couldn’t help thinking, and not for the first time, how thin the line is between pro figure and women’s bodybuilding—in terms of leanness as well as muscularity. The one-piece suits in particular can be less than flattering on ultralow-fat physiques, and there was enough of that in evidence in New York/Jersey to make me cheer today’s IFBB Advisory Notice (superseding  a previous advisory notice) that the one-piece round is now history.

Another thought that stuck out (pun intended) as I went through the pictures: Flow of the bodyparts is key in figure as well as bodybuilding. Sometimes I want to scream, “Big shoulders are not the answer to everything.” (But I don’t…I don’t.… The heck I don’t.…)

Brownie, who was the favorite going into the competition, had the best blend of balance and conditioning in the lineup, and the panel wasn’t going to pass on a sure thing. The rest of the top placings looked pretty reasonable as well to this desk chair observer, including Turner, who was due for an Olympia qualification, in third. Strobo wasn’t at her best—could have been fuller—creating the opportunity for a pair of talented and hungry rookies to slip in ahead of her.

Gina Trochiano, who got her pro card at this show, at the Team Universe, in ’09, made a strong debut in sixth, while Meriza DeGuzman, still seeking an Olympia invite for this year, landed in seventh.

Find the complete results below.

Re the one-piece suits. The organization’s reasoning on this may not be the same as mine, but we certainly agree on the outcome. Starting with the next pro figure event, the Europa Battle of Champions in Hartford, Connecticut, on July 23 and 24, and henceforth, including at the Olympia, there’s will be on only one round of comparisons in figure, two-piece swimsuits.

’10 New York Pro Figure

1) Cheryl Brown
2) Dana Fallacara
3) Terri Turner
4) Josie Zamora
5) Gennifer Strobo
6) Gina Trochiano
7) Meriza DeGuzman
8) Ann Titone
9) Marcy Porter
10) Candice John
11) Jelena Abbou
12) Tivisay Briceno
13) Chelsey Morgenstern
14) Jenn Migliacci
15) Holly Beck
16) Angela Mraz
17) Jeni Briscoe
17) Christina Casoni
17) Nicole Coleman
17) Caroline Hernandez
17) Jennifer Hernandez
17) Juliana Malacarne
17) Michelle Mayberry
17) Marie Ann Newman
17) Vicki Nixon
17) Katherynne Ramirez
17) Tammy Strome
17) Kimmy Trowbridge
17) Rosalind Vanterpool
17) Stacy Wig
17) Magdalena Wilk
17) Jennifer Woodruff

Photos: Cheryl Brown (top) and Dana Fallacara.

Pro cards are awarded to the top two in each class in figure and bikini at the T.U. Figure and Bikini Championships, in addition to two per at the accompanying National Fitness Championships. There’s also a pro card for the overall winner of the masters figure division, so you can see why this show is a magnet for babes of all ages. As the numbers show, however, despite bikini’s growing popularity, it won’t be overtaking figure anytime soon: 162 in the figure lineup, plus 69 in the masters, some of whom were crossovers, vs. 77 in the bikini field.

Jackie Hoppe was deemed the best of 37 in the figure C-class before snatching the overall from Tiana Gonzalez (A-class), Teresita Morales (B),  Charmayne Jackson (D), Mona Muresan (E) and Michelle Battista (F). Pro cards also went to runners-up Shala Singer (A), Kiana Phi (B), Joanne Murphy (C) Mikaila Soto (D), Patricia Nguyen (E) and Kristen Nagrani (F). The latter, by the way—and in case the name sounds familiar—is the mother of bikini champ Nicole Nagrani, mentioned above, which makes them the first mother-daughter duo ever to turn pro on the same day in the NPC. (Although for my money it’s hard to top Lee Priest’s winning the Australian national mixed-pairs-bodybuilding title with his mum back when he was a teen.)

As so often happens in pro-qualifiers that include masters events, crossover competitors earned pro-qualifying spots in both divisions. Thanks to changes in NPC procedure, the nonmasters winners were announced first, and those who got their pro cards were taken out of the running for the over-35 pro card. That led to a couple of ladies moving up to the head of their classes, including masters C-class runner-up (to Soto) Elizabeth Earhart, who ended up winning the masters overall and getting a card.

At the other end of the spectrum was Nagrani the younger, an 18-year-old former cheerleader and fitness competitor who’s got a great look and, I’m guessing, displayed some smooth moves in winning the bikini B-class and overall.  Pro cards also went to: Natalie Abrheim and Kelly Gonzalez (A-class, first and second), Lindsey Morrison (B-class, second), Vanessa Campbell and Bianca Binno (C), Juliana Daniell and Nicole Guerrero (D), Juliette Primak and Chady Dunmore (E) and Jenny Drennan and Kristal Martin

Photos (from top):

Tina Durkin and promoter Steve Weinberger hail new figure champ Jackie Hoppe.

Figure class winners, tall to short (from left): Michelle Bautista, Mona Muresan, Charmayne Jackson, Hoppe ,Teresita Morales and Tiana Gonzalez.

Overall bikini winner Nicole Nagrani.

Bikini winners (from left) Jenny Drennan, Juliette Primak, Juliana Daniell, Vanessa Campbell, Nagrani and Natalie Abrheim do the stride ’n’ snap.

A mother of four who started bodybuilding at age 40, Quinn took second in the lightweight class in 2007 and third last year. She beat out a tough field of eight, including runner-up Laurie Smith, and last year’s class champ, Maria Carolina Davis, who had to settle for third,

McNeff, who’s in her first year of national competition, reeked potential from the minute she got onstage but was not exactly crisp in her presentation, as we like to say. When the judges awarded her the heavyweight title over gals who were clearly in better condition, it caused quite a stir—but can you blame them if they thought she was the best package to represent the United States at the Women’s World Amateur Championships in Mexico this fall (if, in fact, they think that way?)? A lot of training can happen between now and September 30, when the games begin.

Heavyweight runner-up Alisa Allen showed excellent potential as well, and third-placer Karen Gatto brought a nicely conditioned package.

Henderson, who was the only middleweight, displayed a super set of biceps but was no match for Gina in the battle for the overall. As there are only two weight classes at the World’s, we’ll have to see how the U.S. team shapes up.

It’s a dayum shame in general that more women don’t want to enter these trials for the World Amateur Championships. Yeah, I know they’re drug-tested (I covered the show for a lot of years), but I’m willing to bet that numerous athletes who could have been very competitive here will turn up later this month at the USA, if not the Masters Nationals.

So what is it about the T.U. that keeps many likely contenders from entering it? The class winners get to compete abroad—and it’s a pro qualifier. The move from New York to a less expensive New Jersey location didn’t seem to boost the numbers in the women’s division—there are 18 competitors listed in the final results. Since anecdotal evidence suggests that women’s bodybuilding is anything but dead, I have to wonder what’s up with that.

One of the main reasons that I haven’t been to the Team Universe/Fitness Nationals/New York Pro Figure in a couple of years is the shrinking bodybuilding lineups—men’s and women’s. It’s become a marathon weekend for figure and bikini, plus fitness, not a bad thing, but our reason for covering the T. U. was always to highlight the drug-tested bodybuilding nationals. When the travel budget got cut, well, you can finish that sentence.

So my hat is off to all the female flexers who have the body and the guts to enter the Team Universe. Here’s hoping there will be more next year, ’cause I love covering this show—even if it means going to New Jersey.

Photos (from top):

Gina Quinn got the big trophy, plus pro status.

Haley McNeff got the award for best potential.

Joy Henderson got the no-guts-no-glory award.

Those three, plus Dana Fallacara, a brand-new pro who took the A-class at the Junior Nationals last month, made the first callout in the one-piece suit round. I liked the look of Josie Zamora, the overall champ at the Juniors, and the judges must have too. When they got to the two-piece round, they added her to the previous group for the key first callout.

The accompanying photos are the first callouts from both rounds, courtesy of Reg Bradford. Check back later for more on the Team U and Fitness Nationals—and to see if I was right about Brownie, Terri and Gen.

Top photo (from left): Dana Fallacara, Terri Turner, Cheryl Brown and Gennifer Strobo. The panel retired Turner and Brown but kept Fallacara and Strobo up for the second comparison.

Second photo: Josie Zamora (second from the left) joined the group for the big two-piece comparison.

• I thought it was just me, but I checked the dates. The lo-o-o-ng lull in the 2010 IFBB pro season still has a week to go, with the New York Pro Figure—and NPC Team Universe Championships plus Fitness Nationals—coming up on July 10 and 11 in Hackensack, New Jersey. Not that bodybuilding, fitness, figure and bikini have been on hold since the Cal Pro Figure at the end of May. The amateur season has been chugging along (thank you very much), most recently here in Southern California at Lonnie Teper’s West Coast Classic, which I attended last Saturday.

This weekend we’ve got the Mr. and Ms. Muscle Beach Bodybuilding, Figure and Bikini Championships at the Venice Recreational Center on July 4. Nothing like an old-fashioned day of sun, sand and bodybuilding at the beach. The newly revamped amphitheater next to the famous Venice weight pen makes for the kind of a physique show folks don’t often get to experience these days—it’s outdoors—and admission is free. For more information click here. And don’t forget the sunscreen.

• Also this weekend (well, yesterday) the August IRON MAN hits newsstands. For me, as part of the magazine-production team, it is barely a memory. We are busy finalizing the September issue for the printer. So when the new edition lands in my mailbox, as happens every month, it’s a big Oh, wow, especially when I get to Pump & Circumstance, which is headlined by a hot photo of bikini sensation Nathalia Melo. It also features Roland Balik’s stellar contest photography from the New York Pro Women’s Bodybuilding and Bikini events, held in early May, and some pithy comments, if I do say so myself, about the meaning of sass.

My point here is that readers who are not familiar with the actually IRON MAN magazine might want to check it out. It’s the best package of real bodybuilding and training and nutrition information out there, in addition to the fun stuff like Pump and News & Views (and I’ve always said that, even when I worked for another bodybuilding publisher).

The August cover features a classic Gene Mozée shot of the soon-to-be-ex governor of California towering over the desert. I use the  phrase “soon-to-be-ex” not to knock Governor Schwarzenegger but to point out the way time flies. Wasn’t it just yesterday that Arnold was running for reelection? And on an even shorter continuum, wasn’t it yesterday that I was doing a photo-edit of the pictures from New York?

Time flies, but when an image is immortalized on the printed page—as are Roland’s contest photos and Mozée‘s iconic images of Arnold in the August IM—there’s nothing like it. Bet they’ll look really cool on an iPad.

To get the August ’10 IRON MAN click here.

• Re the amateur season. July brings one big pro-qualifying contest after another, starting with the T.U. and then a couple of weeks later, on July 23 and 24, the Master’s Nationals in Pittsburgh, followed by the USA in Las Vegas on July 30 and 31.

I make no predictions except one: There will be a lot more bikini contenders at the Masters Nationals than the five who showed up in Pittsburgh last year. A lot.

• Figure farewell. According to an advisory notice from the IFBB Professional League issued in June, an old friend is going by the wayside after the the ’10 Olympia. Beginning with the Houston Pro Figure on October 23, the one-piece swimsuit round will be a thing of the past.

Raise your hand if you’re shocked at this development. When the one-piece was eased out of fitness a short while back—and out of NPC competition—you had to know it was only a matter of time before it got the ax in pro figure. As one who has whined about the one-piecers over the years, I won’t be sorry to see them go, although, as always, I hate to see the women get less time onstage.

• Re predicting the pro qualifiers. With hundreds of competitors expecting to quarter-turn and model-walk their way through those three big NPC shows mentioned above, it pays to keep track of the gals who do well at some of the tune-up event that are scheduled before them—like, say, the big Los Angeles Championships, which takes place a week before the USA.

With i’s new national-qualifier status L.T.’s West Coast Classic, formerly the Junior Cal, moved into that category, attracting a bountiful bevy of pro-card-hungry figure and bikini contenders from the Golden State and beyond.

Several teams came from Arizona, including some women brought by figure pro Felicia Rodriguez and her honey, Damian Segovia, who took home some serious hardware. Find Darice Castro, Natalie Vanderham and Elizabeth DeFalco in the photo at the top of  this entry—and don’t be shocked, (shocked) if their names come up again during the next few weeks.

Photos (from top):

Arizona talent (from left): Natalie Vanderham, Darice Castro and Elizabeth DeFalco (with Felicia Rodriguez) took home class gold from the West Coast Classic Figure competition. Darice won the overall.

Arnold on the IM August ’10 cover.

Pump & Circumstance.

Nicole Wilkins-Lee makes a one-piece suit look good at the ’10 Figure International.

What with a 2 1/2-month gap before the second half of the season, the idea has had a time to sink in. S0 is it all over but the model turns in the battle for the Bikini O, which is three months and six contests away?

Click on the arrow at the top to hear what Sonia had to say when I caught up with her a few weeks ago at the Cal.

Photo: Sonia Gonzales.

Following this conversation we discussed how one could get the trophy, a large sword, on a plane back to Colorado and whether it would be useful in the kitchen. Shish kabobs for all!

Find my report on the Cal Pro figure below.

An e-mail I received this morning from a good friend who shall remain nameless regarding the California State Pro Figure competition, which was held yesterday, May 29, went as follows:

“What a surprise that Heather May French won (wink, wink).… I just feel that the quality of figure isn’t what it used to be compared to the days of Davana, Medina, Chistina Pomponio Pate, etc.”

My response: Well, yeah, but who was gonna beat her?

I’m not getting into it about Davana et al., but Heather Mae, who won her third straight pro figure show in a row—and second-in-a-row California Pro title—last night at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Culver City, is a genuine figure total package. She’s a beautiful woman, she has a tight little body, she knows how to present and she hits it, conditionwise, every time. One highly placed athlete who was present but had not seen the judging asked what I thought; she’d heard the girls were “harder than at the Arnold.” After admitting  that I hadn’t been to the Arnold—and that I’d been so distracted trying to figure out how I’d screwed up my camera setting that I hadn’t actually looked at what I was shooting the judging, I told her this: The women have pretty much been this “hard,” within a range, for some time. The perception that they were softer at the Arnold, a.k.a. the Figure International, in Columbus, Ohio, in early March may have been based on the fact that a “softer” competitor, Nicole Wilkins Lee, won. Heather was third at that one as well as at the ’09 Olympia; and someone would have had to have brought something pretty amazing to have beaten her in Cali.

Prospective recruits for the upcoming summer shows take note: Heather Mae is calling it a day until the Olympia.

Not that talent didn’t get noticed in the 19-woman lineup, which included Meriza Deguzman, Rosa Maria Romero and Canada’s Christina Mehling. In fact, the second and third spots went to a couple of gals who are thrilled to be making their Olympia debuts in September.

Katina Maistrellis was a class winner at the ’08 Nationals. Seventh in her pro debut at the ’09 Europa Super Show and fifth at the ’09 Houston Pro, she eased into the runner-up spot at the Cal with “better balance, better stage presence and more confidence,” by the former competitive swimmer’s own assessment.

The third-place check and Figure Olympia qualification went to Carin Hawkins. Eighth last year at this show as well as at the ’09 Sacramento Pro, Carin, like Katina,  has been focusing on making her legs fuller. It seems to be working.

As for Meriza, she landed in fourth, with Michelle Mayberry tickled pink to round out the top five, her finest figure finish ever.

Next up on the pro figure circuit, the Europa Battle of Champions in Hartford, Connecticut on July 23 and 24.

Photo: California top five (from left): Meriza Deguzman, Katina Maistrellis, Heather Mae French, Carin Hawkins and Michelle Mayberry.

Here are the complete results from Culver City:

’09 California State Pro Figure
1) Heather Mae French*
2) Katina Maistrellis*
3) Carin Hawkins*
4) Meriza DeGuzman
5) Michele Mayberry
6) Christina Mehling
7) Jennifer DeJoya
8) Rosa-Maria Romero
9) Angela Terlesky
10) Masae Tagami
11) Georgina Lona
12) Valerie Ganji
13) Raechelle Chase
14) Jessica Wright
15) Susan Salazar
16) Thais Cabrices-Werner
17) Zaneta Ksiazek
18) Candice Houston
19) Ginette Delhaes
* Qualifies for the ’10 Figure Olympia.