I forgot how cold it was the morning of April 29 as I listened to Butch Dennis say a prayer with the Athletes before the prejudging. Then maybe it wasn't that cold, but just looking at all the athletes strip down to their trunks made you kind of cold. But no one that I recall made mention of cold, but I did hear the buzzing of how different this was, those athletes that were new to this organization. Jerry Anderson, ACBA head judge, went over some of the things he expected of them. There was mention of a video of Dr. Price, Pastor of the Faith dome, that would be shown during the break for the athletes before the night show. The prejudging went very well, and the night show was off the hook: the DYMES, a hip-hop gospel group, started the show off with their version of the National Anthem, which set the mood for a high-energy show. The DYMES came back later to fuel the fire. First to take the stage were the teens and it started off with a guy from the short class, a very animated Robert Brown who I thought was very good. The judges must have felt the same way; he ended up beating out Kent Mitchell, Jr. who had to settle for second and Lynwood Douthett who could only muster up third. In the tall class, a lean Earl Coles, who I hear reads a lot of muscle mags fought off Jamar Walker, another lean prospect --Jamar was reduced to second. Robert Brown didn't make it easy, but Earl beat him out for the overall: they were equally muscled, but you know the saying, big man always beats the smaller man. When Rico the MC announced this next class, I couldn't believe it. This grandmaster class looked very young: that's what natural bodybuilding does. This line up included Leon Burch, the totally ripped veteran; Lynn Herr bought slabs of muscles with him, a vet also. Newcomer Roger Quinney, who didn't spend enough time on his diet, but looked good still. Needless to say, Leon, who has a habit of winning, captured first, with Lynn receiving second and Roger being handed the third place trophy. There were only two women in the master class, but if I could use the expression, they were "fine". One of them I've seen on Jenny Jones, Ms JJ she calls herself, and the other, Rosie Raya, should be on TV. In this class Ms JJ won with Rosie accepting second. Dave Karana came all the way from Hawaii with a luggage full of muscles and a suntan. Now Don Prosser, who dramatically dropped about forty pounds to do this contest, and Craig Durst who took some time from his saxophone, gave Dave a run for his money. But when you're ready, you're ready: Dave made a home run and took first with Don stealing second and Craig sliding in for third. Novice women short class was won by Spanish beauty and brawn Rosie Raya. I thought Laurie Delaney needed a few more days for her diet to kick in, which I heard it did: she won a contest a week later. This day she had to settle for second. Medium novice women class was won by a newcomer, Treana Jones over Jay Dilhani. Both these girls should tighten up on their diets if they plan to stay in this game. Katrina Witbeck was the only one in the tall novice class, who I might add, just had a baby a year ago. The overall class for novice women was won by -- that's right -- Spanish beauty Rosie Raya; Katrina didn't make it easy -- that's Katrina, not Trena. Roderick Bentley, who has made a dramatic change in two years, beat out Bert Lerztman from San Diego, with his six pounds of new muscles. I think Bert needs to stop training with light weights and bring up those legs and pay some attention to that back. Novice class medium winner was Minh Nguyen, who also won the best poser award -- this guy is a great poser. (Speaking of posing, the guest poser at the show was the best of the best, Moji Aluwa.) Taking second in this class was a guy who can walk better on his hands than most people on feet -- Donate Alfonso had to accept a second place trophy; third went to Craig Durst. Justin Gross, a movie star looking guy with muscles, took second in the novice tall class, needing to be a little leaner. Ralph Williams, great upper body but needs to bring up the legs, won first in the overall. Something you don't see often enough is the couples routine. Well, they had it here and it was won by Karmen Cheng and David Karana. Open women short class was won by muscular Ms JJ over Laurie Delaney. A cool calm Karmen Cheng took first place over newcomer Jay Dilhani. Karmen also won the most ripped seven foot trophy -- I thought it should have been Rosie, but then I'm not a judge. Are you ready for this? Leon Burch, who's over fifty, beat out Dave Karana who's over forty and some guy by the name of Robert Dalton who seemed to be in outer space, for the open short class. Dave received second and when Robert comes down we'll give him third. Open men tall was won by novice overall winner Ralph Williams, and coming in second was last year's novice overall winner Armando Pineda, Jr.(great symmetry) who I think should have won this class. Robert Fleming is incredible when he's in shape, but it seems these days he's trying to get bigger -- remember Rob, its natural -- you can only get so big. Derek Lamont Burrell -- I'm still trying to figure out who his fans are: every one of them wrote Butch a letter about him taking fourth saying he should have taken first. This guy to me was smooth, no abs and his pectoral region seemed to be strange and he really didn't know how to show his body, nice calves though. Needless to say, he was better than last year, but not better than the guys he was up against. This is Ronald Young saying God bless you and drop me a line at ronaldkyoung@hotmail.com
