2005 Canadian Fitness and Figure Championships Contest Report

April 23, 2005 - by genex hwang

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada - With an earlier date than usual, the pressure was on for the athletes who competed at the 2005 championships. In 2004 four new pros were made, and anticipation was high going into the day, although officially, only two cards were up for grabs.

At the 'height-ins' it was evident that the earlier date resulted in fewer competitors, but the top athletes were still impressive. Immediate favorites had to be Jill St. Laurent in figure, Jamie Senuk in tall fitness, and Emmanuella Pintus.

Fitness kicked things off and right off the bat, the physique of Antonia Grady, Myriam Capes and Tracey MacDonald looked like the top three, so it would most likely be the routines that determined the class champion. Grady, a rising young star from British Columbia had improved her physique markedly with added size and great aesthetic lines.

But once the routines started, it was all the Myriam Capes show. The 20-year-old from Quebec tumbled and bounded about the stage with the kind of routine you might see from Kelly Ryan. With tremendous gymnastics moves and incredible strength and presence, there was no doubt that Capes would take the round and also win the Best Routine award.

The Tall class included Alberta's Jamie Senuk who had brought up her physique and looked incredibly tight and sharp. Christina Mehling from Manitoba looked good and Renee Berard sported some nice calves and shape, but just needs to tighten up a bit more and can also hold a little more muscle. Serena Copper was in fantastic shape and was very lean and defined.

Berard had a nice Lara Croft theme to her routine including some nice martial arts moves that most people have only been able to reproduce on the Playstation - and that earned her runner-up to Capes for the Best Routine award.

For the overall and class titles, there was a definite surprise as in the tall class, Mehling beat out Senuk (by one point, the judges announced). But the bigger surpise for many was that Mehling also won the overall and the lone pro card. Capes would make a more than capable pro, with a pro-level routine already, whille Mehling will need to work a bit to bring her routine up to the pro level. If there were a case to made for an additional pro card, Capes would be a more than sensible choice, and one that most of the audience would have agreed with.

However, Capes is already looking towards the 2005 North Americans where she should already be a favorite.

In figure the disctibution of athletes was pretty uneven with only two in the short class, which Angela Robinson easily won over Mayrse Clement. But the medium height class was packed with impressive athletes and a total of 14 competing in the class.

From the start though, there were five standouts in the class (numerically): #3 - Jill St. Laurent, #5 - Allison Black, #8 - Patricia Berriere, #9 - Trina Gillis, and #10 - Emmanuela Pintus. In the end, the top three were St. Laurent, Pintus and Gillis (in that order) - all three former bodybuilders following in the steps of last year's winner Debbie Leung, one of the most overlooked IFBB Pros (at least for now).

The Canadians definitely have impressive physiques and Villebrun looked remarkable with nice thickness and fullness. Black can add some more size, but has very nice shape as does Angie Morelli.

In the tall class, there were eight competitors and it looked like it was going to be between Nina Luchka and Tammy Strome for the class. The two looked almost the same although the judges went with Stromes leg development over Luchka's. However, it was really a coin flip and either of the two were deserving

Fort St. John, British Columbia's Jennie Briscoe took third and has a quiet regality and presence on stage and should do well at the Emerald Cup the following week in Seattle. She runs a gym in the northern BC town where fellow competitor Melissa Tompkins also trains.

Like most any physique competition the fitness and figure championships were not without controversy. The fitness class overall title was surprising and brings to mind the constant question of whether the judges look at just the competitor in their suit to compare the overall or if they are also remembering the routine rounds in assessing who the overall champion will be.

There were even long discussions over the judges table after the final results were announced and it wouldn't be a stretch at all to have awarded one or even two more pro cards as the federation did in 2004. Although the numbers may have been down overall, that was not necessarily the fault of the athletes and the top ones in each class were definitely impressive and will make good future pros.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Results

Fitness Nationals Overall: Christina Mehling* Short 1) Myriam Capes (#2) 2) Antonia Grady (1) 3) Tracey MacDonald (5) 4) Tara Grant (3) 5) Nicole Grobowsky (4) Tall 1) Christina Mehling* (4) 2) Jamie Senuk (6) 3) Renee Berard (5) 4) Serena Cooper (3) 5) Lyndsay Imrie (10 6) Tannis Hill (20 7) Charlotte Ferguson (7)   Athlete #s are shown in parenthesis after their names * earns pro card

Figure Nationals Overall: Tammy Strome* Short 1) Angela Robinson (1) 2) Maryse Clement (2) Medium 1) Jill St. Laurent (3) 2) Emmanuela Pintus (10) 3) Trina Gillis(9) 4) Allison Black (5) 5) Patricia Berriere (8) 6) Kim Hilderman (14) 7) Deanna Brown (1) 8) Rene-Claude Carre (6) 9) Angie Morelli (12) 10) Melinda Brace (11) 11) Michelle Hiebert (2) 12) Melissa Tompkins (13) 13) Tanya Villebrun (7) 14) Joelle Murphy (4) Tall 1) Tammy Strome*(4) 2) Nina Luchka (8) 3) Jennie Briscoe (5) 4) Roberta Orth (6) 5) Michelle Jacobson (1) 6) Jan Cowie (2) 7) Tamara Rengenwetter Gawlick (7) 8) Andrea Michaud (3)   * earns pro card