Santa Susana, Spain 2011 (full report)

Click here to vien complete results in pdf format


by Andrew Michalak

The 2011 World Juniors and Masters Championships have passed and the medals have been distributed in 24 following categories:

JUNIOR WOMEN’S BODYBUILDING OPEN CATEGORY:
1. Liana PALL (Romania)
2. Mihaela SERBAN (Romania)
3. Dora LENGER (Hungary)

JUNIOR MEN’S BODYBUILDING UP TO 75 KG:
1. Yovko TIHOV (Bulgaria)
2. Burak GULLU (Turkey)
3. Mike NIESSEN (Germany)

JUNIOR MEN’S BODYBUILDING OVER 75 KG:
1. Tim BUDESHEIM (Germany)
2. Federico SEBASTIAN (Argentina)
3. Witold POMECKO (Poland)

JUNIOR MEN’S CLASSIC BODYBUILDING, OPEN:
1. Milan OBORIL (Czech Republic)
2. Ferhat MAGAN (Turkey)
3. Konrad BALCERZAK (Poland)

JUNIOR WOMEN’S FITNESS UP TO 163 CM:
1. Melinda SZABO (Hungary)
2. Laura CUPSA (Romania)
3. Renata MERI (Hungary)

JUNIOR WOMEN’S FITNESS OVER 163 CM:
1. Nikoletta RESCH (Hungary)
2. Maria MALIKOVA (Slovakia)
3. Olga STEPYNA (Ukraine)

JUNIOR MEN’S FITNESS, OPEN:
1. Anghel BIRICA (Romania)
2. Hermann ARMIN (Paraguay)
3. Costin DUMITRU (Romania)

JUNIOR WOMEN’S BODYFITNESS UP TO 163 CM:
1. Jana CERNOVSKA (Czech Republic)
2. Michaela PODNAKOVA (Czech Republic)
3. Tatiana PIACKOVA (Slovakia)

JUNIOR WOMEN’S BODYFITNESS OVER 163 CM:
1. Adela ONDREJOVICOVA (Slovakia)
2. Barbora CERNAKOVA (Czech Republic)
3. Ana MERDENOVA (Lithuania)

JUNIOR WOMEN’S BIKINI FITNESS, OPEN:
1. Bettina NAGY (Hungary)
2. Andrea KATSELOU (Greece)
3. Roza MAZUREK (Poland)

MASTER WOMEN’S BODYFITNESS, OPEN:
1. Raquel HERNANDEZ (Spain)
2. Emi PEREZ (Spain)
3. Natalia VIETROVA (Ukraine)

MASTER WOMEN’S BODYBUILDING
1. Elena STASIUKYNIENE (Lithuania)
2. Josefina SANCHEZ (Spain)
3. Marina NIKOTINA (Russia)

MASTER MEN’S CLASSIC BODYBUILDING, AGE 40-49:
1. Roman SENTI (Switzerland)
2. Michael APRIN (Germany)
3. Jerzy PISULSKI (Poland)

MASTER MEN’S CLASSIC BODYBUILDING, AGE OVER 50
1. Atsushi KATAKAWA (Japan)
2. Michal SIDIK (Czech Republic)
3. Frantisek DAVID (Czech Republic)

MASTER MEN’S CLASSIC BODYBUILDING OVERALL:
1. Roman SENTI (Switzerland)
2. Atsushi KATAKAWA (Japan)

MASTER MEN’S BODYBUILDING, AGE 50-59, UP TO 80 KG:
1. Armando VILLA (Spain)
2. Michel VOSSIER (France)
3. Faruk HORHOR (Turkey)

MASTER MEN’S BODYBUILDING, AGE 50-59, OVER 80 KG:
1. Wolfgang SCHOBER (Austria)
2. Inigo ORTIZ DE MENDIBIL (Spain)
3. Alexandr ALEKSEJEV (Ukraine)

MASTER MEN’S BODYBUILDING, AGE 60 – 65, OPEN:
1. Esmat SADEK (Egypt)
2. Gilles POMERLEAU (Canada)
3. Luciano ANDREOSE (Italy)

MASTER MEN’S BODYBUILDING, AGE OVER 65, OPEN:
1. Bernard COOPER (United Kingdom)
2. Manuel VALBUENA (Spain)
3. Rafael VERA (Spain)

MASTER MEN’S BODYBUILDING AGE 40-49, UP TO 80 KG:
1. Valery KOPTENKO (Ukraine)
2. Esteban AMAT (Spain)
3. Luiz SARMENTO (Brazil)

MASTER MEN’S BODYBUILDING AGE 40-49, UP TO 70 KG:
1. Miguel LOPEZ (Spain)
2. Jose BUSTAMANTE (Peru)
3. Carlo CAPUCCI (Italy)

MASTER MEN’S BODYBUILDING AGE 40-49, UP TO 90 KG:
1. Valentin ANTONOV (Russia)
2. Jose BUSTAMANTE (Venezuela)
3. Ernst ZIMMERMANN (Germany)

MASTER MEN’S BODYBUILDING AGE 40-49, OVER 90 KG:
1. William ORTUNO (Venezuela)
2. Ralf HERGET (Germany)
3. Jorgen CORNELIUSSEN (Norway)

WHEELCHAIR MEN’S BODYBUILDING, OPEN:
1. Shan SINGH (India)
2. Mohammadreza TABRIZI (Iran)
3. Tolga BALIKCI (Turkey)

With 2 wheelchair bodybuilders coming from India in the last moment, the Championships were attended by the amazing record number of countries: 50! During the whole weekend, 231 athletes performed on the stage, 23 finished their start in the eliminations, 125 entered the finals and 72 won medals. These medals went to 27 countries from 5 continents. This is the measure how physique sports are expanding, provided top quality athletes from all corners of the globe.
Santa Susanna, the city often called “The world capital of fitness”, opened its door to the world bodybuilding family once again and these doors will be open forever as Mayor Joan Campolier declared in his speech during the opening ceremony. Spanish hosts provided nice hotel for accommodation of the participants and perfect, well-known venue site for running the contest. IFBB President, Dr. Rafael Santonja, expressed the feelings of the world bodybuilding family, in few simple words – “We love Santa Susanna”.

2011 IFBB JUNIORS AND MASTERS CHAMPIONSHIPS
When you are young at your heart…


This is the phrase from music background of the Canadian master bodybuilder and is key to understand tremendous popularity of masters categories in the IFBB. Their soul is young, their mentality is young and their body is young, what they presented in details on the stage. “Bodybuilding as weight training and healthy nutrition is the key to prolong your mental and physical youth and allows you to prolong your life and rise the quality of this life” – as the IFBB President Dr. Rafael Santonja emphasized in his opening speech. The number of participating masters has broken a new record of 162 competitors.

This year’s World Juniors and Masters Bodybuilding and Fitness Championships were held in the Spanish Mediterranean spa of Santa Susanna. Several World Women’s Championships were held there but they will host Juniors and Masters for the first time. This was the biggest IFBB contest of this type, with over 500 participants, including athletes, delegates and supporters. The whole Caprici Verd Hotel was booked and it was not enough. Altogether, 228 competitors from 50 countries and 6 continents came to these Championships. The host country, Spain, entered the biggest number of athletes (A- and B-Teams) and won the team’s classification, ahead of Germany, Poland and Czech Republic. 24 sets of medals were distributed, including the new categories, held for the first time in the IFBB championshps: junior women’s bikini fitness and master men’s bodybuilding over 65 years old.

Spacious Parc Colomer Sport Center served as a venue site and was perfectly prepared by the IFBB, and the Spanish Federation working closely with the City Council Sport Department and City Mayor Joan Campolier, who undertook this responsible task with great enthusiasm.
Mr. Campolier welcomed IFBB Executive Council members and managers and national teams managers at the special dinner given Friday night. The contest was run in a new order, with semifinals and finals of some categories on Saturday and shorter, attractive finals of the other categories on Sunday. Then there was the farewell banquet at the hotel and Monday morning all teams were delivered to the
El-Prat International Airport in Barcelona.
Now the battles! What happened in each category?


JUNIOR WOMEN BODYBUILDING: Three-time European champion and two-time world champion Liana Pall (Romania) easily won her third worlds title. Her main challenger was her team-mate and European Juniors runner-up Mihaela Serban but distance between them is still big.

JUNIOR MEN BODYBUILDING UP TO 75 KG: 8 athletes, with two top from the 2011 European Junior Championships: Yovko Tihov (Bulgaria) and Burak Güllü (Turkey). They ran a close battle for the victory once again but only in the routine round (8:9 to Tihov). Compulsory poses rounds went clearly to Tihov, who displayed bigger muscle size and deep separation.
Gullu was in good shape but needs bigger thighs, which looked too small compared to his massive arms. Third place went to a newcomer from Germany, Mike Niessen, strongly pressed by the newcomer form Poland, Rafal Domin. I was especially impressed by Niessen’s overall predispositions for physique sports: he is taller, wide-shouldered, with longer legs. Perfect body lines for bodybuilding and I think he will need one-two years more of training to follow his famous team-mate Tim Budesheim and climb up to the top, probably in the heavyweight category.

JUNIOR MEN BODYBUILDING UP OVER 75 KG: Only 4 athletes but what a quality! It is a great pleasure to observe how a young bodybuilder has been gradually growing and progressing, finally reaching the top in his class. Tim Budesheim of Germany is a perfect example of the above. Beginning his competitive career in 2009, he won the junior overall title at the 2010 Nationals, then debuted at the Junior Worlds, finishing in the 4th place. One year more of diligent training and nutrition and he advanced to the top. He showed not only bigger and better muscularity but also hardness and quality. Having no weak points, he will be a very competitive bodybuilder among seniors soon, if not turning pro too quickly like his predecessor from Germany few years ago, Daniel Hill.
Budesheim had two demanding rivals in Santa Susanna: Federico Gonzales from Argentina and Witold Pomecko from Poland. Both of them have nice physiques and good muscularity but not so big and hard like the winner. Gonzales is the next “export” bodybuilder form Argentina, following 2010 world junior overall champion Rodrigo Piriz and he has similar, very attractive body structure. Pomecko also showed fantastic frame but suffered a stomach flu just before coming to Santa Susanna, so was dehydrated, with flattened muscles.

JUNIOR MEN CLASSIC BODYBUILDING: 7 bodybuilders but nobody from the previous year finalists except … Milan Oboril (Czech Republic), who moved from bodybuilding (4th place at the 2010 Worlds in Antalya in 75 kg class) to classic bodybuilding and took his rivals by surprise. Milan was an unquestionable leader of this category, winning all rounds with the perfect scores. He impressed the judges with his muscle quality (abs, thighs), so his rivals will need one year more to advance to the top (Milan already turned 21) if… IFBB will not change the rules moving up the upper age limit for juniors to 23, what was seriously discussed in Santa Susanna. But better to wait for the official announcement.

JUNIOR WOMEN FITNESS UP TO 163 CM: 7 athletes but of the extraordinary quality! The routines of the top five were really fantastic! In my Preview I asked who could stop Melinda Szabo from winning the next world title? Now we know the answer: nobody could. Melinda continued her amazing series of victories, started in Alcala with the 2011 European junior’s title, then winning the Arnold Europe and Women’s Worlds. Now she completed this series with Juniors Worlds victory, grasping all titles she could fight for. Infant prodigy? Maybe. Melinda’s power is that she is as good in the physique round as in the routine round (received 7 points in each round). This is necessary nowadays, if you want to be an unbeatable fitness champion. Former world champion Laura Cupsa did her best but she lost too many points in the routine round to challenge Melinda for the final victory. She rather had to focus to advance to 2nd position ahead of next Hungarian young star Renata Meri, who is able to won the routine round even over Szabo but showed too soft body. Cupsa did something very difficult, moving up from the 5th place in the routine round to the 2nd place in the physique round and in total.
2010 European champion and bronze medal winner at the 2011 Women’s Worlds Dominika Multanova (Slovakia) was helpless in this situation, despite the fact she was also very well prepared to this event, both in routine and body. And then two newcomers at this level: Inna Nosolenko (Ukraine) and Alexandra Alekhanova (Russia). We can expect that Nosolenko, being trained by famous coach Antonina Orobets (her both children: Oksana and Maxym already won the world juniors fitness titles), will be improving and moving up quickly.

JUNIOR WOMEN FITNESS UP OVER 163 CM: 8 athletes but no so high level like in the short class. 2010 Worlds bronze medal winner Nikoletta Resch (Hungary) used up the absence of the top two from Antalya and moved up to the top, winning no single round. Olga Stepina of Ukraine was unbeatable in the routine but it was no surprise. She is well-known of her top acrobatic possibilities but I couldn’t see any bigger progress in her body quality. It seems that the judges had the same opinion and put her in the 5th palace in the physique round what pushed her down to the
3rd position in total. Barbora Micianova of Slovakia – the opposite: won both physique rounds but coming last in the finals’ routine round and dropped to the 4th place.

JUNIOR MEN FITNESS: Nobody from the previous year. Most of them already turned 21. The battle began with big surprise, advancing 15-years-old newcomer from Paraguay, current South American men’s fitness champion Hermann Rolon to the 1st place as a winner of the routine round. But he didn’t manage to keep this place as much older (age 21) and matured European champion Anghel Birica of Romania showed bigger muscularity and easily won the physique round, taking the gold medal, ahead of Rolon and the second Romanian Costin Dumitru. According to Paraguayan delegate and judge Mr. Fernando Mederos Caldarelli, it was the first IFBB World Championships medal for Paraguay in the history (2010 world bodyfitness champion Nora Martinez lost her medal due to the Anti-Doping Rules violation).
Anyway, very young Hermann Rolon is a new interesting men’s fitness rising star, with all predisposition for the future successes.

JUNIOR WOMEN BODYFITNESS UP TO 163 CM: There was an internal battle between two Czech girls: 2010 world champion Jana Cernovska and newcomer Michaela Podnecka, who was very close to dethrone the champion, winning the semifinals. But Cernovska managed to reverse the course of events advancing to the top in the finals, mainly due to the very attractive T-walking presentation. Podnecka emerged at the 2011 European Junior Championships finishing 3rd there. She is one year younger than Cernovska, 20, and has all qualities (perfect body frame) to be the future champion. The same can be said about the 3rd place winner, Tatiana Piackova of Slovakia. Time will show which one will be progressing faster.

JUNIOR WOMEN BODYFITNESS UP OVER 163 CM: 7 competitors, with clear domination of the former European overall junior champion Adela Ondrejovicova (Slovakia), who had so nice debut at the latest Women’s Worlds in Novi Sad (4th place). Telling the truth, when I saw her first time at the 2010 Europeans in Doneck,
I didn’t think she would progress so fast and would ever reach so high quality. Now I have to change my opinion: girls at that age can change their body in a surprising tempo and range. In Santa Susanna I heard from the judges that Adela will become the second Yulia Ushakova! And I can agree with this point of view. She has done a real metamorphosis, transforming her body to perfectly developed one, with narrow hips, slim, hard thighs, tiny waist, impressive lats and shoulders. She had no problem to win the overall title as well. Congratulations to her and her trainer Pavol Jarabek. Barbora Cernakova of the Czech Republic finished once again second behind Ondrejovicova, same like in Donetsk, showing no visible progress and being strongly pressed by a gifted newcomer from Lithuania, Ana Merdenova, who is only 15 years old and the future will belong to her, I think.

JUNIOR WOMEN BIKINI FITNESS, OPEN CLASS: This was a new category at the World Juniors and Masters Championships, so only 4 athletes competed as many National Federations didn’t know about this change in advance and didn’t nominate their athletes. The first, historical IFBB world champion, Bettina Nagy of Hungary, is already a top quality athlete, with brilliant perspectives not only in juniors class but among women’s also. The next girls: Andrea Ketselou of Greece and Roza Mazurek of Poland were too slim and too soft, needed more time for developing better body lines and quality.

MASTER WOMEN BODYFITNESS: The longest line-up, with 23 competitors and one great name: latest Arnold America and Arnold Europe winner, 2011 European master champion and 2010 Worlds masters runner-up Raquel Hernandez (Spain). The battle was so tough that many titled athletes didn’t enter the finals: Anna Maria Giordani (Italy), Marisa Lopez (Spain), Carina Isaksson (Sweden) and Roberta Raguth (Switzerland). Under the absence of the 2010 world champion Dagmar Simmen, Raquel Hernandez was the main pretender for the title and she didn’t fail. Presenting her usual top condition, elegance and self-confidence in T-walking, she won both rounds and… declared to turn pro next year, so it was her farewell performance at the IFBB Worlds.
The next two places went the newcomers: Emi Perez (Spain) and Natalia Vetrova (Ukraine). Perez has competed in bodyfitness since 2001 but in the other organizations and moved to the IFBB this year, finishing 3rd at the 2011 European Masters Championships and at Arnold Europe (women’s bodyfitness over 168 cm). She is tall (172 cm) with nice body lines and low bodyfat level. Vetrova won the 2011 Ukrainian Nationals and debuted at the international level in Santa Susanna. She displayed top body quality, with delicate abs and quads separation but her T-walking presentation was a real feast to the eyes. Stepping to the music, almost dancing, she was passing along the stage with lightness and poison. Has great potentials.
The tallest competitor on the stage, graphic artist from Norway, Jorun Steine (180 cm) came to her third consecutive Masters Worlds and took the 4th position for the third time. We can only wish her to win a medal next time. Next pl

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