Men’s Physique’s Auspicious Debut

I felt Bikini would be big in the NPC after it was added to the agenda three years ago. I must admit, though, I was taken back by how quickly it blew up. After watching 44 fella’s take the stage in the new Men’s Physique division at the MuscleContest Championships over the weekend, it looks like history might be repeating itself. I mean, this was the inagural presentation of the men in board shorts in California…to me 20 entries would be considered a major success. A week earlier, when I hosted the Utah State Championships, seven gentlemen strutted their stuff in that category. Think promoter Jon Lindsay might have felt the same way, too. But, to surpass the 40 mark the first time around was the buzz of the prejudging.

As a matter of fact, I went right home from the show and immediately added a Men’s Physique 35+ to the existing two open classes at my NPC BMR West Coast Classic on June 25 (npcwestcoast.com). Lindsay ended up including an additional division to MP due to the large numbers (three classes, plus Masters 35+) and, who knows, perhaps I might have to do the same thing—if the numbers multiply the way I think they could. What a nice problem for a promoter to have.

Time will tell. In the meanwhile, congrats to Alex Cameiro, who became the first ever NPC MP champion in California when he topped a field of 18 in the C division before nabbing the Overall crown as well. Kudos to Wes Taitano and Peter Le, who took the A and B categories, respectively, before falling to Cameiro in the Overall.