By Calvin Roberts
He entered. He displayed. He dominated.
Those verb phrases best describe Timeon Mendonca’s participation in the Guyana Amateur Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation (GABBFF) Banks Malta-sponsored Novices and Intermediate championship at the New Amsterdam Town Hall Saturday night.
Competing in the heavyweight division (165 lbs and over) in a show that started one hour late for unknown reasons, Mendonca, who trains at the Hardhitters Gym, was truly a hard hitter especially in the Intermediate category where his dominance stood out over his other competitors.
In the Novices category, Mendonca was the lone competitor but he still managed to draw applause from the spectators including Mayor of New Amsterdam, Claude Henry, whilst going through his poses for the judges who included Minister within the Ministry of Education Dr. Desiree Fox.
But it was in the Intermediate category that he proved his superiority over crowd favorite Prem Persaud from Interline Gym and Saenz Sooklall from Winderoju Gym.
When it came to the overall posedown in both the Intermediate and Novices category, Mendonca conquered all to walk away with both titles along with his individual weight titles.
Earlier, Travis Peters of Studio 2000 was the lone competitor in the Intermediate lightweight (Under-154lbs) category while he had three other competitors in the Novices category where he placed third behind winner Melroy Grant and second placed Jermaine Mc Almont.
Another crowd favorite Delon Harlequin won the Novices middleweight (154-165 lbs) category from Armin Griffith and Narinedat Bhowandin respectively.
And, faced with Griffith alone in the Intermediate category he blew away his competitor to take that title thus joining Mendonca as a double individual category winner.
But facing Mendonca and Peters in the Novices posedown, it was clear to all that Mendonca had the symmetry (muscles, leanness and physique) the judges were looking for and he duly walked away with that title.
The Intermediate posedown saw Mendonca, Harlequin and lightweight winner Melroy Grant up against each other.
Harlequin immediately rushed to get the judges attention ahead of Mendonca who was content to stand behind his man and contrast all his poses which sparked off “oohs” and “aahs” from the patrons.
Even though he was the smallest, Grant utilized the stage to gain the judges’ attention and, while his bigger opponents were involved in head-to-head upper body battles, he chose to stay down by their feet and flexed his muscles into second position behind Mendonca and ahead of Harlequin.
Mendonca won for himself a $10,000 gift voucher courtesy of Exclusive Styles along with trophies and other prizes.
Guest posers Royston Booker and Sylvon Gardner sent the crowd wild after the competitive part of the night was over with their head-to-head clash.
Gardner has won for himself and Guyana three consecutive gold medals from 2003 to 2005 at the Central American Championship as a bantamweight before gaining a bronze in 2006. He returned last year to win another gold medal and also did Guyana proud at the Musclemania Worlds held in California, USA where he gained a silver medal.
Booker is an experienced competitor, who came out of retirement to compete at the Hugh Ross Classics held earlier this year.
He and Gardner gave the crowd their money’s worth. They had an unofficial pose down following Booker’s earlier individual guest posing routine and even though it was not competitive, patrons had their appetite whetted by the mass of Booker and the definition of Gardner.
The GABBFF took the opportunity to thank the following, beverage giants Banks DIH Limited, A. Ally and Sons, Gordon’s (Stationary and Boutique, New Amsterdam), Farfan and Mendes Limited, Wireless Connections, Exclusive Styles Boutique, Two J’s General Store and Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club for making the event a successful one.
