Barbara & A British Winner in San Marino

The start of June saw the second of the new pro shows in Italy. Well, sort of new. The San Marino Pro has been held before, in 2014 - men only - and then last year with the chaps again but also Figure and Bikini classes. This year though, just as with the Galaxy Pro in Bari in May, the only female division missing was Fitness, and amateur contests held on the first day fed the class winners into the pro show the following day.



In Bari, the new Female Bodybuilding pro had been Cristina Maffeis (see FMS passim). In San Marino, another Italian won the right to compete with the pros.



Barbara Carita won both the amateur Physique and FBBing classes. An asterisk by her name on the list of pro card winners revealed a line at the bottom of the list that should warm the cockles of any fan of big time female muscle - "The athlete chose to compete in the pro Female Bodybuilding class". Barbara prefers her double biceps close-fisted. I liked her already. And it was also the smart choice. In Physique she would have competed against Cris Goy Arellano, Paloma Parra, Joanna Romano... The sole entrant in Female Bodybuilding was Cristina Franzoso.



By the end of the weekend, then, Barbara had three first place trophies and an invite to the Rising Phoenix. I won everything! she exclaimed afterwards. I've achieved the biggest goal of my career... and more! I'm finally an IFBB pro and there will be a tricolor [Italian (flag)] flying among all those prestigious athletes [at the RP].



She may not be among the favourites come September, but mio Dio! she does get freaky. And - again, this should warm the cockles - she is by no means backwards in coming forwards to show that freakiness off, testing the limits of Instagram censorship on a regular basis during her San Marino prep, and providing us with (for my money) the most thrillingly repugnant leg vascularity since Lisa Giesbrecht's pomp.



She does the showing off in clip-form too. Here we see the eye-popping state of her legs "the night before the exams" as she put it, one day before she took to the stage.



Delicioso!

And while this veteran Italian was making her dreams come true, in the Figure class, Britain's sole female representative at the event was having her best ever pro day.



It was exactly 10 years ago today that Louise Rogers became British Figure champion. Since then she has turned pro, competed on an (almost) annual basis - in Europe, Australia and the States as well as at home in the UK Bodypower Pro event. Until she placed 2nd in Bari at the Galaxy Pro last month, 3rd at Bodypower (twice) had been her best pro placing. But this win beats everything. I'm so thankful to have these new opportunities for pro athletes in Europe, she said, beaming with her medal after the show. Dreams do come true. We are going to the Olympia!



Louise's long overdue triumph is the latest in an ever-growing list of British IFBB pro wins. Lisa Cross in Bodybuilding, Rosanna Harte in Physique, Emma Paveley and Kate Errington in Fitness, and Nina Ross in Bikini have all won over the last few years. And now Louise, the first British pro Figure winner? I don't have the time to check very thoroughly, but I don't recall a British pro at the Figure Olympia before.



There have been high points in the past, courtesy of Andrulla and Gayle, but those wins, amazing as they were, were few and far between. Are we enjoying the Golden Age of British Female Muscle right now? Hopefully, it's just the beginning.



Enjoy!