Bodybuilders Off To World Championships?

Date: 25-10-2006 Posted by: Anabolic Info TeamBahamas

The National Team of Azerbaijan on bodybuilding has cemented their place to participate in the world championship which will be held in Prague during the weekend.

The President of the National Federation (FBBA), Rauf Bunyataliov, said that the National Cup Winner, Vugar Verdiyev, and tournament Silver Medal Winner of the, Rovshan Guliyev, will be participating in the 90 kg weight category of. The competition will serve as preparation for the European championship due in Baku next year.

Verdiyev has regularly participated in the world tournament and on numerous occasions, has been amongst the semi-finalists.
On Tuesday, BBF President Danny Sumner held a press conference to inform that the four-man team still has a slim chance to make the competition, as it appeared as if an issue concerning their travel visas for the Czech Republic was being sorted out.

Sumner explained, "The problem was getting the visas. We had to send our passports to the Czech Republic Embassy in Cuba to process the visas, and that has been the biggest challenge."

At the time of the press conference Sumner said the federation had yet to have their passports returned.

However, he said the Cuban Consulate in New Providence had been working very closely with the Federation to help them attain the visas, and that the Consulate informed that the passports and the visas should have been returned no later than Tuesday.

Sumner said if they received the passports at a reasonable time on Tuesday they would still try and make the trip.

However, he informed that the Federation has been presented with another challenge as it relates to getting the entire team to the championships.

"We were initially planning for a four-man team to travel including myself as coach, and when we initially applied for the tickets they were around $1,200, now that the visas took such a long time to be completed the ticket prices have sky rocketed to $4,000," he explained.

"As a result of the astronomically high cost of the tickets," he said, "we may have to cut one of the athletes from the team or hopefully, get the funds from somewhere to take all three of them."

The three athletes include, National Champion middleweight Jay Darling, bantamweight Paul Wilson and veteran Raymond Tucker who would compete in the Masters welterweight division.

The team was selected a week after The Bahamas National Championships held in July.

At the Central American and Caribbean Bodybuilding and Fitness Championships in Jamaica earlier this month Wilson and Tucker won silver in their events. Tucker also won gold in the mixed pairs competition with Bahamas female National Champion Gina Mackey.

Darling was unable to defend his gold at the CAC championships and had to settle for bronze.

It has been 12 years since The Bahamas last competed at the World Amateur Men’s Championships in Aman, Jordan and the last pair of athletes to represent The Bahamas was Aaron Green and Ramon Tucker.

According to Sumner the last two females to represent The Bahamas at the world level was Della Thomas and Maxine Darville who competed at the event in Spain nine years ago.

Sumner also informed that at this year’s championships the World Congress Meeting would take place and there will also be elections for the executive body of the International Federation of Bodybuilding.