Davis eyes Micronesian bodybuilding tourney

Aaron Tomokane, seen here competing in the 2015 NMI Bodybuilding and Physique Championships, and other local bodybuilders will get a chance to participate in a regional tournament if the Micronesian Bodybuilding Championships pushes through next year. (Jon Perez)

Northern Marianas Bodybuilding and Physique Federation president John Davis is aiming to hold a regional tournament for Micronesia to further promote the sport and prepare participants for other competitions.

Davis is hoping to organize the Micronesian Bodybuilding Championships sometime next year with Saipan hosting the inaugural tournament. It is not yet known if the competition will be held annually or every two years with hosting rights rotating among Micronesian countries.

The CNMI, Guam, the Federated States of Micronesia—Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei, Yap—Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, and Palau make up the Micronesian region. FSM competes as one nation in the Olympics, Pacific Games, and Pacific Mini Games, but usually field separate teams in the Micronesian Games.

Davis, a certified international bodybuilding judge, said they already begun discussions on how they would organize the tournament. “We [NMBPF] already had a meeting last Monday to get the ball rolling for the Micronesian Championships.”

“I did send out letters to the various Micronesian Olympic committees and ask them to forward the information to their respective federations. So far, only Guam has responded,” said Davis, adding that more information would be available once they finalized some of their plans for the tournament.

“I also asked [board member] Greg Borja to bring this up with countries participating in the Pacific Mini Games. In any case, we will be moving forward with the preparations. More on this as it develops,” said Davis.

Davis, in a previous interview, said it will be up to the host federation to determine what categories, weight classes, age, and gender would be featured in the regional competition. Bodybuilding and Physique have different categories for junior or youth, senior, open, and masters divisions.

Meanwhile, the MBC would also serve as Saipan’s warm-up event for the 2021 South Pacific Bodybuilding Championships. The island was the awarded the hosting rights for the South Pacific Bodybuilding Championships during last month’s competition and SPB Federation’s Congress in Honiara, the Solomon Islands. The SPBF board also announced that Fiji will host next year’s competition, while the 2019 and 2020 editions will be held in American Samoa and Tonga.