Kerwin Clarke wins HRC 2012

– Gardner wows crowd after guest poser’s no-show

By Avenash Ramzan

Kerwin Clarke of Buddy’s Gym won the Male category, while the multi-talented Alisha Fortune was the lone female bodybuilding competitor, carting off that title for third time in succession at the third biennial Malta Supreme Hugh Ross Classic on Saturday evening at the National Cultural Centre.
In the Miss Figure competition, Nadina Taharally of Interline Fitness Gym got the nod ahead of Letitia Myles of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and Ashanti Fortune of Body Maxx Gym, who finished in second and third spots respectively.
Despite a late start, a few technical glitches and the no-show by Brazilian guest poser, Andre Luiz da Silva Coelho, the vocal crowd was treated to a quality exhibition by the best bodies in the land competing in various weight classes.
The chiselled Clarke won from a field of five, all winners of their respective categories earlier in the evening.
Clarke had earlier won the Welterweight division, and by copping the overall title joined Mark ‘Uno’ Perry (2008) and Royston Booker (2010) as previous overall champions.

Clarke was up against Devon Davis of GDF, Marlon Bennett of Extreme Fitness Gym of Diamond, Clint Duke of Total Fitness and Michael de Santos of Interline Gym in the final showdown for the title.
After the mandatory poses, the five men were involved in a ‘posedown’ as requested by Chief Judge Frank Tucker after which the points were tabulated.
“At the end of it all we can only have one winner, and tonight that winner is… number 1,5… number 15, Kerwin Clarke,” Tucker announced.
Clarke’s route to competing for the overall honours was made possible after he won the welterweight division from Lindie Sharpe in second and Selwyn Grogan in third.
In the bantamweight category, Davis had the better of Eybo Oxford and Yogeshwar Nirmal, who ended in second and third respectively, while Bennett prevailed over runner- up Alston Lancaster and third place Travis Peters in the lightweight division.
In the highly competitive light middleweight category, the experienced campaigner Duke outperformed Dillon Harlequin of Interline Fitness Gym and Alfred Jordan.
De Santos topped the battle of the heavyweights, beating off the challenge of Sean Henry of Buddy’s Gym in second and Junior Dey of Zahiff’s Gym in third. The other competitors in this division were Dwayne Mars, Sean Sooklall, Alex Hamilton and Matthew Harry.
In the absence of da Silva Coelho, who apparently missed his connecting flight from Belem to Paramaribo, Guyana’s Central American and Caribbean gold medallist and Fitness Trainer at Buddy’s Gym, Sylvan Gardner, filled in admirably as the Guest Poser.
Gardner, sporting an envious physique, wowed the audience, especially the ladies, as he incorporated bodybuilding poses, while dancing to live African drumming by Orlando Primo of Magic Fingers during the intermission.
Before the announcement of the overall winner, Guyana’s renowned international bodybuilder, Hugh Arlington Ross, in whose honour the event was held, appeared topless and treated the crowd to a few poses.
Speaking to the publication after the event, Ross apologised to those in attendance on behalf of the HRC Committee for the Brazilian guest poser’s snub. He was however, grateful to Gardner for “ picking up the slack” at the last minute.
That aside, Ross was gen erally satisfied with the level of competitiveness that was displayed on stage.
“I will conclude that the overall competition was good. The athletes were very pleased, the judges did a good job. Some sponsors that were there expressed their satisfaction, and the feedback from the audience was positive.
The NCC staff were very cooperative and the GABB& FF was very supportive,” Ross acknowledged.
“The rivalry among the athletes was friendly yet keen, especially after I gave them a pep talk while they were warming up.” Apart from Banks DIH Limited, under the Malta Supreme brand, the other sponsors of the event were: Giftland OfficeMax, Fitness Express, Mohamed’s Enterprise, Mohamed’s General Store, Fazia’s Collection, Hand- in- Hand Insurance, Dhanson Trading, Buddy’s Gym, Sanjay’s General Store, Colours Boutique, Windjammer Hotel, International Pharmaceutical Agency, GT&T, Khalifa Habibulla, Chase Academic Foundatio, Planet Fitness Pro and Star Party Rental.