1999 Women's Extravaganza Weekend (NPC Amateur Events)
By -jabber


Okay, one comment/apology/excuse first.  Because they added the Ms. Olympia
at the last minute but retained the original price of $100 for the whole
shebang with a VIP ticket, this became, IMO, one of the best, if not the
best bang for the buck show I've ever been to.  This holding of the price
was one of the best surprises and both Kenny Kassel and Bob Bonham are to be
applauded for this.

I tell you, if more fbb shows were "value-priced" like this, you'd
definitely see more folks jamming the auditoriums.  Plus, it was nice that
you did not need a ticket to mill around the booths and meet with fellow
femuscle admirers and so forth.  Some folks find that even more interesting
than the shows themself (not me, however).  But that's rare, at the more
recent NPC Nationals in Orlando (as with nearly every show I've been to) you
need a ticket just to mill around the booths.

With that said, like with many shows I've been to this year, there was no
competitor roster so therefore my comments about the NPC Amateur Events will
be extremely brief as I had other duties and took VERY sketchy notes here.

Fitness:

It was a very attractive lot of females with Teri Mooney being the only
competitor I knew.  She looked great; she didn't finish so great.  The
winner was a very attractive, young lady with an energetic routine.  But I
vehemently disagreed with her winning as I saw at least 3 others there who I
felt were better.  

Bodybuilding:

The winner in the middleweight was Karry Quinn - who later went on to place
13th at the Nationals a scant two weeks later.  I felt the second place
finisher had nearly as good of conditioning, and muscle size as Ms. Quinn,
with slightly superior symmetry and a drop dead gorgeous look to her.
Sorry, I don't remember her name (where have I used that line before? :-) ).

The winner in the heavyweight was an impressive Fran Ferraro, who I
mistakenly thought was actually from Italy (New York - close enough :-) ).
Sporting dark hair and incredible muscle density all over (including
calves), her astounding condition and vascularity more than made up for some
slight structural deficiencies (that would only be apparent at higher
caliber shows).  Rightfully so, this amazing fbb won the overall, too in
resounding fashion.  A scant two weeks later, at the Nationals, she placed a
very high 3rd, considering she was much stronger at the WSE.  I would've
liked to see how much better she may have finished if she showed up as good
as she did in Secaucus.

Sorry for the abbreviated notes - next time I won't take so much pictures
and clap and boo so much - well maybe not. :-)