1999 Jan Tana (NPC Bodybuilding)
By Jabber



Okay, now the good stuff - well maybe...

Lightweight:

This was by far the most controversial class - as many felt what happened
(including myself) was a travesty.

First off, in 5th place was a thinnish Paula Skateel.  In 4th place was
Sherry Broom.  In 3rd place was another thin blonde, Joy Colfelt.  However,
I had mixed emotions, as she had tremendous abs, but a huge tattoo
obliterating part of her abs - well you still saw that was her best bodypart
by far.

Before the show, while I was making my way out to my car, I saw Steve
Wennerstrom and a small blonde woman, obviously a competitor, who looked
European.  Steve was commenting how they just missed the shuttle and "Pavla"
had a competitor's meeting at 9:05 am.  I offered to do the shuttle duties,
not having any idea how good this little competitor would be, once she took
off her blue gym cover-up top.  Not too much small talk, as I didn't get the
impression she spoke much English, and was keyed-up that she might miss her
meeting.

When I saw Pavla Brantalova on stage I was very impressed with this little
competitor from the Czech Republic.  Other than not having the
overpoweringly muscular thighs, she reminded me a lot of one Sue Price.
Perfect symmetry not seen in any other amateur competitor that evening.  But
oh the judges must have been in a surrealistic universe where the atmosphere
was so thick to obscure their view of the stage.  She was announced 2nd!
She was SO good, she could've threatened to win the overall.  I'd spoken to
many folks afterwards and all stated in not so many words, it was a
travesty.

Anticlimactically, in 1st was a woman who should've gotten a solid 2nd, a
very hard and dieted down brunette named Donna Carr.  In looking back, I've
heard two theories (both which may have some merit).  1) They gave it to
Carr because she was the harder, more conditioned athlete, although her
symmetry paled to Ms. Brantalova's.  2) It wouldn't look good to give an
American amateur show title to a foreigner.  I'd hate to think the latter
had anything to do with things, but I wouldn't put it past the judges, but
as I've said before, as long as the conditioning is good, I always put
symmetry and a muscular aesthetic physique high on the list.  Simply put,
Pavla had that, Donna did not, sorry.

Middleweight:

In 2nd place was Sylvia Matthews, who facially resembled Joanne McCartney a
bit.  If her body was anywhere near as muscular as Ms. McCartney's, I'm sure
she would've won this class.  In 1st was Lisa James, who I remarked to a
couple folks, looked like a blonde version of Laurie Fierstein (remember
her?).  Her thickness was quite good, but her abs lacked a bit compared to
the rest of her physique.

Interestingly, a couple folks at this show had commented that the music was
a bit too loud (and I believe finally got the attention of some officials in
charge of the music level who probably couldn't hear them because of the
loud music).  But I didn't complain as, to me, it adds to the Rock Concert
atmosphere (another -jabber hobby, time permitting).  And with Ms. James
routine (a medley from the rock group Kiss), hey, the louder the better.  I
was liking it...

Heavyweight:

In 3rd place was Gloria Knight-McNeil (nice easy name to hear and spell), in
2nd was Stella Propinski, who was extremely wide (Pro wide, Mary Hovey-Walk
wide).  I almost felt she should've gotten this class.  Finishing first was
a striking and also wide Kassie Hornbuckle.  In addition to her having a
noticeable amount of muscle on her frame, perhaps the most noteworthy thing
about this blonde fbb was the fact that she was 6'1"!  I know, I shared an
elevator with her (and her 6'6" boyfriend) and asked her.  She also stated
she was about 172 lbs. at the show.  Indeed, her tremendous effort at
filling out that tall frame gained her the Overall also.  Since she was up
against the wrong lightweight (should've been Ms. Brantalova), I had no
problem with this decision over Ms. Carr and Ms. James.