Igor Kopcek @UKBFF British 2017

It's absolutely unprecedented! Krish Kataria (centre, 1st), Livia Melo (right, 2nd), and
Zulmira Woodrow (left, 3rd) flex their muscles after the up to 163cm Bikini class awards

Yes yes YES! It's absolutely unprecedented, and most welcome - FMS' favourite female muscle contest lensman, Eastlabs' Igor Kopcek, was at the recent UKBFF British Championships doing what he does so well. For once, I am able to put together a report on the show where my problem is not where to find images without big f*** off watermarks saying DO NOT F***ING COPY all over them, but how to choose which of the 2,799(!) images of the female classes to include. I've been in heaven for the last few hours, and I don't mind admitting it. Mr Kopcek, I doff my chapeau to you, sir!


Jo Griffiths, 6th, Masters Bodyfitness

Of course, I'm still going to have whine about the paucity of information available regarding the results. Were it not for John Plummer's excellent reports on the UKBFF Facebook page (I ask you, what kind of federation has its results released via Facebook by a third party?), I'd know even less than the top six in each class that I do know.




Many of the winners and high finishers from Nottingham (the show's now traditional setting) were those who had competed and in many cases done so well for Britain in Barcelona at the Arnold Classic Europe a few weeks before. Sandra Mackie became Britain's first ever "Wellness" Queen, and Marta Mila the new Junior Bikini champ. Connie Slyziut won her second consecutive Junior Bodyfitness title, and Samantha Forbes the up to 163cm Bodyfitness class before being crowned Overall winner too.




However, Danielle Osborn, Britain's big Bodyfitness winner in Barcelona, didn't fare quite so well. In the over 163cm Bodyfitness class, she placed only 3rd. Now I've got nothing against class winner Anna Banks, good on her, but if any of the UKBFF Bodyfitness judges would like to get in touch and explain to FMS exactly why it is that the woman on the right beats the woman on the left, I promise I will be all ears.



There was a tense few days after the photos from the Saturday had gone up on Eastlabs before Sunday's were added. Tense because Women's Physique was the sole female event on the Sunday. Had Igor just come for the Wellness and Bikini bums and flown home early? I wondered. Thankfully, the answer was no, and while he took more photos of just bums (and I mean "just", whole frame = a bum) in the Wellness and Bikini classes than all of the Physique division put together, by the following Wednesday, our Linda and her UKBFF Physique sisters had been added to the gallery. Phew!


Physique Dreams: FMS fave Hayley Brylewski (left), and Anita Tryc (6th)

And talking of bums... Linda had a bit of an issue on and off stage. I couldn’t contract my quads or lower back, and I was shaking like a shitting dog, she explains. People have said it was because I was posing too hard and nerves, but no, it was my ASS. It had locked up and trapped my nerves in my back and legs. And despite the pain and the "locked up" glutes, and her inability to flex her quads or lower back properly, and the "shaking like a shitting dog" (don't you just LOVE her!) she still placed 3rd!



The contest marked the UKBFF British debut of the current NABBA Trained Figure Ms Universe Emma Gormley. Like Linda before her, Emma has made the switch to Women's Physique from the most venerable federation of them all. A lot less peeled, and somewhat more covered in the bum area than she was when she won last November, she placed 5th here in her first UKBFF national level appearance.



4th in the Physique class was UKBFF vet Ade Bishop, who FMS knew of (thanks only to Mr Kopcek and Eastlabs) from international contests such as the Arnold Europe and various Diamond Cups over the last couple of years. This was Ade in by far her best ever shape, and she was perhaps a bit unlucky not to be rewarded with a top 3 placing.


Ade Bishop (left, 4th), and Andrea Corbett (right, 2nd)

A lot happier - probably the happiest woman on stage even though she didn't win - was runner-up Andrea Corbett, another UK Physique trooper in European contests who rarely gets placed near the top. Again, nothing against Andrea, congratulations to her, but while I've got the UKBFF judge on the line educating me about the Bodyfitness criteria, perhaps they could also fill me in as to why Andrea finished above Ade.



And the winner was...

Tune in tomorrow for a dose of serious star quality.



Isn't it a shame we - and more importantly all the wonderful UKBFF British ladies - have had to wait until 2017 to get top-notch, comprehensive, and freely available photo coverage? I can't help wishing Igor had been there in 2014 to see your Hot and Hard 100 #5 Sarah Williams win the Physique title, or Ria Ward the year before that, or he'd been there back in 2011 to see Rene Campbell become the UK's Queen of Muscle, or indeed the year before that, when Rene was runner-up to Lisa Cross... [seriously? 2,799 photos and you're still not satisfied? tut tut - ed.]

Full galleries here. Enjoy! It may be the one and only time...

2016 Review: December

NPC/NABBA (cont.)



We continued our simultaneous look at two of the big end-of-year contests with, among other things, a reminder to some IFBB pro competitors that a wig is not necessarily necessary (ask Natascha Donald), and we took another peak at the spectacular, er, peaks of class runner-up and new Physique pro Suha Qasem.



The winners of the Overall titles - Emma Gormley at the NABBA Universe, and Chareece Johnson at the Nationals - deserved all the praise we heaped on them, especially so Emma Gormley, who'd already won Northern Ireland and Britain titles in 2016, and here became the first British Overall Ms Universe for 25 years.



But, if we had to pick a favourite from each contest, it wouldn't be the winners.

From the NPC Nationals, we just couldn't resist Pamela Hamman's liberal interpretation of NPC rules regarding posing suit coverage. Perhaps that's why she only finished 3rd in her class?! We can't think of another reason, and neither can she. As we write she's still going on about it on her Instagram, fully engaged in an almighty slanging match with the husband of one of the competitors who placed above her!



No such issues for Kay Goodwin competing in NABBA. Display as much of that perfect bum as you like. And she does. And that's why she is our pick of the show!



Kay's "reverse bow" is priceless!

FBBUK

And for our last week of posts for the year, it was where the heart is.



There was a name from the distant past, long overshadowed by her sister's female muscle achievements; there was a new name, suddenly all over the world's media; and there was an entire weekend devoted to the marvellous, mighty Sharon Madderson, including an Instagram post of hers so impressive we reproduced it in full.



But really the star of the week (perhaps when we look back to December 2016 in the future, the British female muscle star of the year), was the subject of our first post of our FBBUK week, and also the subject of my (and many other female muscle fans') waking thoughts ever since images of her triumph at the WABBA International Ms Universe came to light. Sarah Williams, former UKBFF British Physique champion, has, it seems to me, just taken her physique to the next level.



Look. at. Those. ARMS!!!

That's all for the review, but, as is customary on FMS, we have two more posts to come in 2016. "Images of the Year" and "Women of the Year" will be on the blog next week, but not in that order. If you celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a lovely one.

From Birmingham to Miami: The Women of the 2016 NABBA Universe & NPC Nationals

Every day this week, one of the women who competed in one of the Toned or Trained Figure classes at the NABBA Universe in Birmingham, UK, on October 29th. And from the NPC Nationals in Miami the following weekend, every day we'll enjoy one of the Female Bodybuilders or Women's Physique competitors, all trying to win their IFBB pro cards remember, taken from among the four classes in each division.

I'm not trying to compare and contrast the women or federations, or make any points here, I just thought it would be a bit different. And it gives us the best of both worlds too. While footage of the NABBA ladies' routines is plentiful, there are few pics. From the NPC Nationals the reverse is true. Little video, many pics. So, by doing it this way we get to enjoy some muscles in motion, as well as a selection of contest photos.

Today, the Trained Figure and Female Bodybuilding overall champions.

Crowned in Birmingham...

EMMA GORMLEY
Ms Universe 2016

NABBA Ms Northern Ireland, Ms Britain, and now Ms Universe, and all in the same year (oh, and PCA Ms Ireland, by the way). Five contests in 2016, and four titles for Emma Gormley. To put her win in context, the last time a British woman won the Overall title at any international NABBA event was four years ago when Leslie Ann-Armstrong (also from Northern Ireland) won the Worlds. The last time a British woman won a NABBA Universe title was way back in the 1990s - when Julie Abel was Physique (ie. Bodybuilding champion). The last British woman to win the Overall Figure Ms Universe title was Helen Maderson in 1991, 25 years ago.



How did she celebrate her momentous achievement? Well, according to the blog of the Pro Gym in Derry, where she works, Emma was back at work the following Monday, and it was business as usual. She opened up the gym at 7am, took a PT client through her paces, hoovered around my feet and then bounced off upstairs to take care of something else... See Emma previously this year on FMS (when we discovered she had won her Northern Ireland title less than a year after giving birth to a daughter and that her contest prep coach is a very familiar name). Watch her performing her routine from that slightly different angle here, posing down against Cinara Polido for the Overall win here, and being interviewed fresh off the stage here.

And crowned in Miami...

CHAREECE JOHNSON
NPC Nationals Women's Bodybuilding Overall Champion 2016



I'm a real bodybuilder now! Chareece told her Instagram followers after her win. Victory is mine today! This was Chareece's third Nationals, and as far as I know her fifth national level show. She'd always previously competed in Physique, twice finishing 5th. Becoming a "proper bodybuilder" has worked out, the second year in a row that the Lightweight champion has won the Overall title at the NPC Nationals.




Taking inspiration from Lenda Murray (the victory pose we featured from Chareece last week is pure Lenda), she says that you shouldn't have to sacrifice beauty and femininity - this is Female Bodybuilding. Now with this goal taken care of Chareece has got her sights set on another, and you might be disappointed to hear it isn't competing as a pro. Well, not immediately anyway. Instead, she'll be finishing her degree. I'm a Strong and Smart Black Woman, she says (her capitals). Believe.

Enjoy!