Saturday night, April 11, was a big one for cougars in fitness as Shannon Meteraud, 40, a veteran fitness athlete and mom of two, leaped to the head of a lineup of 13 mostly younger women to win the ’09 IFBB New York Pro Fitness.
To say that the scores were all over the place would do disservice to the word understatement. In almost every round some lucky lady rose up from the middle of the pack to score a perfect five. In the one-piece round it was Bethany Wagner; in the 45-second routines it was Trish Warren; and in the long routines, Stephanie Irick. Meteraud, however, was consistent across the board, winning the two-piece comparisons and taking two seconds and a third in the other rounds. She chalked up a 29-point win over runner-up Warren, with Tina Durkin rounding out the top three.
Not to suggest that Trish’s performance would be labeled middle of the pack at this show, but you must admit it isn’t every day that she wins the mandatories. Her solid runner-up showing sewed up an invite to the ’09 Olympia for Texas Trish.
According to an early report at Hardbody.com, several athletes had been penalized for either skipping one or more of the mandatory movements in the short routines or doing them out of order. That had to have affected the round-three scores, but the IFBB isn’t giving out who the women were, according to the Pump & Circumstance pipeline, just that the athletes have been told. (Not sure why that has to be a secret—force of habit, I guess—but won’t it be fun to analyze the score sheet and guess?)
Just missing out on an Olympia-qualifying spot in New York were Nicole Wilkins-Lee in fourth and Myriam Capes, fifth. Capes, whose routines are attracting a growing legion of fans, got some rare respect in the body rounds when the judges scored her second in the two-piece.
Re Shannon’s big night: Though she has two pro-figure wins on her résumé, it was the first ever pro-fitness victory for Meteraud, whose first ever win in the sport came in 1995, at Marjo Selin’s SuperFitness competition in Hawaii. Through the years she has earned a reputation for consistency—whatever the sport, she has consistently been a factor in any lineup she’s entered—and that paid off big time in the Big Apple.
Shannon was coming off an Olympia-qualifying sixth-place finish last month at the Fitness International, where, ironically, Tina beat her by one place and Trish was behind her in seventh.
Look for Shannon to try for two in a row at the Europa Show of Champions in Orlando, Florida, this coming weekend (April 17-18).
For complete results from the ’09 New York Pro Fitness, click here.
Photos:
A cougar roars (top): Shannon Meteraud earned her first pro win in fitness in New York. In case you’re wondering, the F reportedly stands for fitness.
Above right: Tina Durkin’s having a swell sophomore year in the pros. Fifth at the International and third in NYC.
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