The cream of the muscle crop
Thirty-two men and women came together for the second year of the Titans Elite competition hosted by the Global Bodybuilding Organisation (GBO) of Namibia to determine who managed to sculpt their bodies to near perfection.The overall winner of the female division was the reigning champion in the women’s beach bikini division, Bea Viljoen from Swakopmund. Competing in the men’s bodybuilding open division, Andrius Pauliukevicious from Lithuania scooped the award as the overall winner in the male division.
Married to a Namibian, Pauliukevicious doubled his time this year to compete in the Titans Elite competition while visiting the family of his wife.
“The atmosphere in Namibia has been the most beautiful competing here,” said Pauliukevicious. With 20 years of experience in bodybuilding and competing in various competitions in Europe, victory in Namibia meant a lot to the 40-year-old bodybuilder. After the competition he gave praise to the good quality of the Namibian maize meal mentioning that it is what he looks forward to eating after his win.
Second time around winner Viljoen mentioned that hard work and dedication is what it cost her to have won for the second time in her division and as the overall winner.
“The last two weeks have been really tough and all I could think of was food,” Viljoen said about her mental capacity during her journey.
This year GBO Namibia managed to have the organisation qualify to give pro-cards to athletes to compete internationally.
According to Riaan Grobler, the director of GBO Namibia, although the athletes exceeded his expectations none of them qualified for pro-card status and he hopes that during the next season of the Titans Elite competition he will be able to hand out pro-cards.
The women’s shape division is a new category introduced this year to cater for the ladies with more curves and it was won by Michelle Kotze.
Male beach body was won by first-time competitor John Mubonda from Katima Mulilo.
Winning a newly introduced category, the men’s bodybuilding under 75 kg, was Hennie du Buisson.
Gerrit van den Heever won the classic division as the only competitor in the division and best newcomer was scooped up by Lamar Beukes.
All the divisions at the Titans Elite competition had the option to receive a pro-card for international competitions.