Nigel Si­mon

Pe­tit Val­ley-born T&T ath­lete Lau­relle Mar­tineau is cre­at­ing a big stir on the US In­ter­na­tion­al Fit­ness and Physique As­so­ci­a­tion (IF­PA) 2013 cir­cuit af­ter se­cur­ing back-to-back vic­to­ries in her last two events.

A for­mer stu­dent of Holy Name Con­vent, Port-of-Spain, the soft-spo­ken fit­ness en­thu­si­asts of Team Fit Xplo­sion cap­tured top spot and the win­ner's cheque for US$1,400 when she topped a nine-women field in the Fig­ure Pro Short Class of the IF­PA Pro Bowl and al­so got the judges' nod for the Women's Open Fig­ure Over­all prize in Rich­mond, Vir­ginia, on Sat­ur­day. Sec­ond was Kristin Rowe, while Kim Tosoian was third, fol­lowed by Mary-Ellen Cla­dy and Tal­isha Halsey to round off the top five. They all qual­i­fied for the IF­PA Yor­ton Cup Pro World Cham­pi­onships, where many of the top nat­ur­al pro physique com­peti­tors will bat­tle it out on Oc­to­ber 27 in Phoenix, Ari­zona, to find out who will rise to the top of the tops.

Com­ment­ing on her vic­to­ry, Mar­tineau, who will cel­e­brate her birth­day on May 19, said, "Be­ing that I ac­com­plished my goal of bring­ing a bet­ter pack­age to the stage this year I felt like a win­ner even be­fore I stepped on stage.

"In ad­di­tion, be­ing able to win the Fig­ure Over­all prize in two com­pe­ti­tions two weeks apart was just a dou­ble dose of ic­ing on the cake...or maybe I should say a dou­ble scoop of peanut but­ter."

Pri­or to her dou­ble vic­to­ry in Vir­ginia, Mar­tineau was al­so a dou­ble-win­ner in the NPC Max Mus­cle Clas­sic staged in Wood­bridge, Vir­ginia, first claim­ing the Women's Fig­ure Class A crown ahead of Carie Brad­shaw, Jill Tsi­amis, Melis­sa Cun­ning­ham and Justi­na Thread­g­ill, and then the Fig­ure Over­all ahead of Sara Mueller and Char­lot­ta Hornig.

Since de­but­ing in 2011, Mar­tineau has com­pet­ed in on­ly eight com­pe­ti­tions to date.

On de­but, she won the Fig­ure Mid­dle Class at the NGA Po­tomac Cup held in Wood­bridge and fol­lowed it up by claim­ing the Fig­ure Open Short and Fig­ure Over­all, which se­cured her IF­PA Pro Card in a nat­ur­al body­build­ing as­so­ci­a­tion.

Un­der the su­per­vi­sion of train­er Lorne Mar­tineau, she then had an 11th place fin­ish in her first pro­fes­sion­al start, the IF­PA Gas­pari Nu­tri­tion Pro Clas­sic in Mary­land, while com­pet­ing in the Fig­ure Pro Class.

Last sea­son, she be­gan with a third place in the Fig­ure Pro Short Class at the IF­PA Pro Bowl in Vir­ginia fol­lowed by fourth in the Short Class at the Fig­ure Uni­verse Cham­pi­onships be­fore clos­ing out the year with a fifth spot at the NPC Mary­land State Clas­sic, in Class A.

With re­gard to the fu­ture, Mar­tineau, who has since been com­pet­ing as a pro­fes­sion­al in the IF­PA as­so­ci­a­tion and an am­a­teur in oth­er as­so­ci­a­tions in the US said reach­ing the Olympia is her ul­ti­mate goal in this sport.

How­ev­er, she was quick to note that she had not reached that high up the lad­der as yet but it was "still in the works."

Com­ment­ing on the like­li­hood of rep­re­sent­ing T&T in the near fu­ture, Mar­tineau, who will cel­e­brate her 32nd birth­day on May 19, the day af­ter her next com­pe­ti­tion, stat­ed that even though she does not com­pete through the T&T Body­build­ing Fed­er­a­tion, she was still a proud Trin­bag­on­ian and rep­re­sents her coun­try wher­ev­er and how­ev­er she could.

"Whether it is by co-or­di­nat­ing my com­pe­ti­tion day at­tire to be the colour red or by stat­ing my coun­try of ori­gin in my ap­pli­ca­tion bi­og­ra­phy, I rep­re­sent in any way that I can," boast­ed Mar­tineau, who moved to the USA to fur­ther her ed­u­ca­tion where she at­tend­ed Howard Uni­ver­si­ty.

Ques­tioned as to how she got in­volved in the sport, the Wash­ing­ton res­i­dent said she al­ways led an ac­tive lifestyle but de­cid­ed to take it to the next lev­el in 2011 when she start­ed train­ing for her first fig­ure com­pe­ti­tion.

"Com­pet­ing was one of the best things that I have ever done for my­self as it has giv­en me fo­cus, con­fi­dence and an el­e­vat­ed dri­ve for achieve­ment. I get to push my body and see it change in­to what I con­sid­er my best! Hard work is so re­ward­ing and the re­sults are well worth the ef­fort. It has al­so be­come a lifestyle not an oblig­a­tion for me."

The soft-spo­ken Mar­tineau was al­so full of praise for her coach Amer­i­can Lorne Durham whom she says has lots of years' ex­pe­ri­ence in the in­dus­try and has taught her every­thing she knows in the sport.

"I al­so have over­whelm­ing sup­port from my fam­i­ly, es­pe­cial­ly my sis­ter Francine and a fan­tas­tic group of friends who nev­er hold it against me when I have to give up some of my so­cial life to train.

"I am an in­di­vid­ual who is in­spired by the peo­ple around me who fol­low through on their dreams and goals. Com­mit­ment plays a ma­jor part in this sport and hav­ing the dis­ci­pline to stick to what you set out to do even when things get rough is ad­mirable to me.

Next up for Mar­tineau is the NPC Ju­nior USA Na­tion­al Cham­pi­onship in Charleston, South Car­oli­na, which she gained qual­i­fi­ca­tion for af­ter com­pet­ing in the Max Mus­cle event on April 20.