On Saturday night, the Theatre Guild was the place to be for bodybuilding fanatics since some of the best bodies in the Caribbean took the stage to do battle in what turned out to be a highly entertaining evening.
After 28 gladiators flexed their muscle fibres to the max, Grenada’s Damion Daniel, Guyana’s Emmerson Campbell and Suriname’s Stefeni Tjon-A-San found themselves as the last men and woman standing.
Daniel, a 2016 Central American and Caribbean Games (CAC) gold medalist in the heavyweight class, stood head and shoulders above the competition, flexing and posing his way to the Mr ‘Stage of Champions’ overall title.
Standing at 6-foot 2’ , Daniel outclassed his opponents as he possessed a superior level of detail and his 215-pound frame was a mass of striated muscle.
With chiselled arms, deltoids, glutes, legs, a barn-door back and a washboard mid-section, the muscleman from the Spice Isle, used his sharp physique to slice through the competition.
Before winning the overall pose down of the champions of champions against Sudarshanan Persaud (under 143 lb) Marlon Bennet (154 lb), Nolan Smith (164 lb) and Ollyn Martin (super heavyweight) , Daniel dispatched five other bodybuilders in the heavyweight class. For his exploits under the lights, Daniel expertly tanned and clad in a red posing trunks, pocketed the $250,000 first prize.
Martin was adjudged the second place bodybuilder overall while a novice on the stage, surprisingly took third ahead of Bennett and Smith.
Men’s Physique
The judges awarded the Men’s Physique Showdown trophy to 2016 CAC silver medalist, Campbell with Suriname’s Raphael Kromokanjo and Trinidad’s Brendon Francis placing second and third respectively.
Among a group of eight outstanding physiques, Campbell brought the shape and stage presence the judges most wanted to see, he was well-proportioned, well-muscled and conditioned, the tools necessary to present a winning package in the category to repeat as champion.
Ms Bikini
In the sizzling Ms Bikini segment, Tjon-A-San upstaged her countrywomen, Militia Galimo (last year’s winner) and Suelle Sheppherd in the five-woman category. The overall Ms. Bikini champion was the near perfect mix of muscularity, symmetry, sass and style.
Campbell and Tjon-A-San took home the $100,000 first prize for winning their segments of the show. Second and third place finishers, in the Bikini and Physique classes earned $50,000 and $25,000 respectively.
The organizers of ‘Stage of Champions’ dubbed the event a success and are looking to raise the profile of the third edition of the fixture in 2018.
