Four Hawke's Bay bodybuilders won titles at the Taranaki championships in New Plymouth at the weekend.
James "JK" Karaitiana won the open men's over-80kg class title, Steve Ward travelled home with the masters men's 40-plus title, Jim Harland the open men's 70-80kg class and Barb Jurcucova the novice women's over-57kg class.
The
quartet were among seven Bay lifters who qualified for next year's New Zealand Federation of Body Building national championships, to be held in Auckland, with top three placings in New Plymouth.
Willie Walker and his partner, Nicci Sarah, were third in the couples division and Mel Caton picked up a third placing in the division won by Jurcucova. All seven bodybuilders train at the Physique 2000 Gym in Hastings.
"Now we've all qualified for the nationals we can have a stress-free buildup until they are staged in November next year, although some of us may do other qualifying events just to sharpen up on certain aspects of our performances," said Karaitiana.
