Fitness winners eschew technique

WHEN one thinks about fitness, strength automatically comes to mind but Mark Roberts and Randall Hope think otherwise. They are of the opinion that technique is the deciding factor in physical fitness.

Roberts and Hope are champions at the first ever Carib Mackeson Fitness Competition held at Vessigny Beach recently. Roberts, who has been in the bodybuilding arena for only three years, belongs to a gym housed at the SWWTU Hall in Port-of-Spain. He expressed that his love for the sport developed every time he watched a bodybuilding competition on television. He decided to “give it a try” and entered the Carib Mackeson Fitness competition at Maracas in August. He admits, with a chuckle, that he was not successful in that competition. He decided to participate in the same competition but at a different location: Vessigny Beach. It was there that he made a name for himself in the field of physical fitness, together with his team-mate Randall Hope.

Hope is a personal trainer at the Bio Fitness club in West Mall. He said that his mother was the one that encouraged him to enter the competition. “If it was not for her I would not have entered,” he confessed. He won the Tyre Roll Competition in which he had to roll a large tyre along a distance of 25 feet. Roberts placed second in this event. They both placed first overall in the shot-put competition. Hope admitted the other teams had the strongest men but he explained that strength was not always the determining factor in winning: “With good technique we were able to prevail,” boasted Hope. He maintained that there should be more fitness competitions open to the public not only for fun but to promote good health. “Fitness is on the uprise in Trinidad and has been around for many years. It is very important to promote fitness on a national level not just on a pro-event level,” he said.