The Sunday Mail
Quiet Shangai
When one of the finest female bodybuilders from Zimbabwe — Davina Mountford — supposedly disappeared from the scene back in the late nineties, the fear was that the appeal of the sport would vanish with her.
Many felt that women bodybuilding was going to take ages to have another athlete who would equal or better the 1992 Ms Zimbabwe title winner.
But alas, great athletes like Pearl Thompson, Charity Juma and Christine Matange came much sooner than expected. Back then, the sport was called women bodybuilding.
However, the genre was latter abolished by the IFBB, thereby paving way for women physique.
Internationally, the category initially failed to attract athletes.
This led to the introduction of women body fitness as the IFBB strove to motivate more women to take up competitive bodybuilding.
Women body fitness, which requires athletes to be less muscular than those in women physique, was introduced but also failed to gain any traction.
In response to this, IFBB then introduced women bikini fitness, now arguably the most popular division at any level. More genres such as women wellness fitness, women fit model and women fitness, were later introduced. These categories were primarily introduced to encourage women’s participation. In 2013, Zimbabwe decided to follow IFBB standards, although women bodybuilding was accorded a division status at the nationals.
Three women’s divisions were afforded to athletes – women figure, women bikini fitness and women bodybuilding. Hellen Costa, Leingham Halfpenny and Lurdes Moura won each of these divisions respectively and have been the flag bearers since then.
For the first time, we had more than 20 women participating at the nationals. Therefore, the idea of opening up divisions paid dividends as it allowed women with different fitness goals to compete.
In 2015, the national fitness body introduced a new division called women beach bikini.
This is a category for the ladies with an hour glass shape. However, they shouldn’t be overly built.
The level of muscularity should not be excessive. It is for that model who does a bit of weight and aerobic training. The judges look at the degree of proportion, symmetry, skin texture and muscularity, which must not be extremely visible. Looks, grace and poise play a key part in determining the winner.
Beach bikini is a developmental category for women bikini fitness. It is a lighter or softer category.
The introduction of these genres at the nationals has allowed Zimbabwe to develop athletes who have done extremely well at international events.
Regina Jonga and Hellen Costa have both conquered the world, not only once but twice.
Mitchelle Fortman became the first Zimbabwean woman to compete at an IFBB competition in a division that is rated professional.
Shirley Spreeth, Selina Manuel, Precious Mujuru and Juliet Chimbadzo have all won at least a medal each at an IFBB competition rated international.
Costa has won the Sports Woman of the Year award twice as well as the Sports Person of the Year accolade once. Going into this year’s competition, the defending champions for women bikini fitness, women body fitness and women physique are Shantel Batch, Michelle Matsito and Charity Juma respectively.
They all hail from Bulawayo.
All have confirmed their participation for this year’s event.
Women bodybuilding is now more popular than it was 10 years ago, thanks to more divisions that allow women with different body types and fitness goals to take up the sport.
Here is to hoping that the growth continues.
The 2019 National Championships will be held next month.
Till we meet again next week, stay safe.
