Sean Nero

Kash­ma Ma­haraj and Neal Bona­parte emerged at the top on Sun­day's stag­ing of the Na­tion­al Se­nior Body­build­ing Cham­pi­onship pro­duced by the T&T Body­build­ing Fed­er­a­tion and held at the Cas­ca­dia Ho­tel in St Ann's, Port-of-Spain. Ma­haraj eas­i­ly de­throned Lisa Fer­nan­des, as well as Leonette La Croix to clinch the ti­tle of Ms T&T, but Bona­parte had to put the squeeze on his five fierce ri­vals to re­tain the cov­et­ed Mr T&T ho­n­ours. Clin­ton Sam­my, win­ner of the men's mas­ters; Kel­ton Thomas, men's light­weight win­ner; Win­ston Chris­t­ian Jr, men's light mid­dleweight champ; Dex­ter Carter, men's mid­dleweight jefe; and Todd Mar­tin, men's light/heavy­weight vic­tor, chal­lenged Bona­parte, though un­suc­cess­ful­ly, for the top ho­n­our.

Ma­haraj, who won her first se­nior ti­tle, had a flaw­less fin­ish. Ear­li­er, how­ev­er, sport­ing fans chal­lenged the de­ci­sion by the pan­el of ex­perts, un­re­served­ly, when new­com­er Fa­ti­ma Al-Aidroos was an­nounced win­ner over fit­ness pro­fes­sion­al Fiona Branker for the Women's Body Fit­ness ti­tle. Ac­cept­ing the judges' de­ci­sion as fi­nal, pa­trons booed Al-Aidroos as cham­pi­on. This cat­e­go­ry al­so fea­tured com­peti­tors Karen George, a vet­er­an, and Michelle Al­leyne. Branker was ad­judged the Most Im­proved Fe­male ath­lete of the event.

Tama­ra Ribeiro-Bai­ley won the Women's Body­fit­ness (Tall Class) ti­tles.

The Win­ners

Men's Over­all:

Neal Bona­parte, Mr T&T

Women's Body­build­ing:

Kash­ma Ma­haraj, Ms T&T

Body Fit­ness (Short Class)

1 Fa­ti­ma Al-Aidroos

2 Fiona Branker

3 Michelle Al­leyne

4 Karen George

Body Fit­ness (Tall Class)

1 Tama­ra Ribeiro-Bai­ley

2 Tr­is­han­ti Rocke

3 Mon­isa Ale­ong

4 T'Chelle Har­ris

Women's Body­build­ing Open Class

1 Kash­ma Ma­haraj

2 Lisa Fer­nan­des

3 Leonette La Croix

Men's Mas­ters (Over 40 years old)

1 Clin­ton Sam­my

2 Garfield Ed­wards

3 Joey Rooplal

4 Lawrence Bel­fon

Men's Light­weight

1 Kel­ton Thomas

2 San­jay Lutch­man

3 Joey Rooplal

Men's Light Mid­dleweight

1 Win­ston Chris­t­ian Jr

2 Dami­an George

3 Cle­tious Julien

Men's Mid­dleweight

1 Dex­ter Carter

2 Mar­lon Arm­strong

3 Neil Di­az

Men's Light Heavy­weight

1 Todd Mar­tin

2 Za­ahid Ho­sein

3 Lin­don Bur­nett

4 Garfield Ed­wards

5 Lawrence Bel­fon

Men's Heavy­weight

1 Neal Bona­parte

2 Ronald Brooks

3 Jer­min Jones

4 Nar­ish Mungroo

5 Cleon Mau­rice Pierre

Body Fit­ness Over­all

(Tall and Short Class­es)

1 Tama­ra Ribeiro-Bai­ley

2 Fa­ti­ma Al-Aidroos