Tuesday, 07 September 2010
WHAKATANE bodybuilder Wendy Sole won her second international title at last weekend’s Asia-Pacific Bodybuilding Championships.
Sole, a competitor for the past 10 years, took out the senior physique category for women over 45.
She said winning the international title in Rarotonga on top of also winning it in Christchurch last year was her greatest bodybuilding achievement to date.
She had now turned her attention to the New Zealand nationals in Auckland on October 2.
“I love the fact that bodybuilding is an individual sport and you rise and fall on whatever you put into it,” the Allandale School librarian said.
Fellow Whakatane competitor Paul Mountfort managed third in the tall athletic division, with seven entries the biggest field at the championships.
Mountfort, a personal trainer, said judges told him “there was nothing in it” over the first three places but the two athletes awarded first and second were more experienced.
“I was rapt at my first international to finish in the top three.”
In a pairing arranged spontaneously at the event, Mountfort and Aucklander Helen Aloiai, who in 2007 won the physique section of the bodybuilding world championships in Greece, won the mixed pairs section.
“We talked the day before the show that we were well-matched to do the mixed pairs and we put a routine together … with our combination there was no way we were going to be beaten.”
They had decided to enter the pairs together at the New Zealand nationals in Auckland in October, he said.
Whakatane Hospital healthcare assistant Des Hiwarau, in his first year of bodybuilding, finished third in his athletic section.
Mountfort said Hiwarau had a big future in bodybuilding.
“He’s the right shape to stack the muscle on.”