This three-day weekend started with the NPC California Bodybuilding/Fitness Championships promoted by the capable John Lindsay at the Vet's Memorial in Culver City. Many more than 100 contestants participated and it was a well run but long show. The finals started at approximately 6:30 Saturday night and all of the trophies were finally distributed around 11:00 pm with hardly any disagreements from the fans.That surprised me because I was one of the only few who had a couple of disagreements with the official judging staff and can recall in the old days when it wasn't uncommon to have a few tomatoes hit the stage in the vicinity of the announcer when decisions were rendererd that were not entirely favorable by the rambuncious fans.In that respect, things have changed for the better; I guess!I don't have an official score sheet so don't look here for the results but I'll post a couple of shots that were taken by my less than dependable digital camera. (Anyone known what technical termenology I have to use when I tell the camera dealer that I want a digital camera that will not make me wait 15 to 20 seconds between each shot? Adn that will allow me to shoot bodybuilding events that have a fast enough shutter to allow the photos to be sharp and clear and not blurry?)I'll include a couple of examples to show what I mean. As you can see I am not a pro photographer. I consider it LUCK when I get a sharp, clear, indoor shot.Here is the winner of the overall Cal contest. He is now eligible to enter the USA this July. Sorry not to have full details of this great athlete.
And gotta thank Mr Howard too for all the work he's done over the past few decades to make today's event a reality.Here's Bill ...... Taken at today's event.
At the Cal, Bob and Milos did have their debate, as they agreed upon. It lasted a good half hour before we stopped eat, as it was late, and all were hungry.
Here's one of those blurry shots that I mentioned above.At this contest (The Cal) I was most impressed by a relatively new contender by the name of Mike Jackson. He competed as a hvywt and has a hell of a lot of potential. He won his class at the Contra Costa (a national qualifier) event a couple of weeks back and just might be getting his feet wet in the USA. I had him placed 2nd in the Cal heavies but he was officially placed third. It was a close call and I do think that the judging was fair.
