| Focus August 1, 2009
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Justine Munro, Silvana
Salvati and Mymuna Nasrin were the big winners at the Summer '09 SAF Model Search and 2009
SAF Elite Championship.
(Photo June 2009 by Dave Paul) |
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The Best of the Best!
It’s been just over a month since the Summer ’09
SAF Model Search and the 2009 SAF Elite Championship, but the memories of those
competitions are so vivid it’s like it happened just yesterday. All the SAF events
have been amazing, but I think what made this one so memorable was that the quality was so
high.
There were about 60 women competing in the three
competitions that day (Fitness Model and Figure Model, which were open to any women 18
years of age or older, and the SAF Elite Championship, which is open to SAF
Elite-qualified competitors), and I was on the judging panel for the entire time. In all
three competitions, the caliber was so high that all of the judges, including me, had a
difficult time narrowing down the field to the top finishers and letting the other
competitors go. In fact, in the Fitness Model category, where there were over 30
competitors, we made the last-minute decision to select a top ten instead of our usual top
eight, because the scores were so close and we didn’t want to eliminate anyone we
felt should be included.
When it came to choosing the top three winners, the race
was just as tight. All of the top- three finishers were special in their own way. As a
result, the first-place winners in each competition – Mymuna Nasrin, Justine, Munro
and Silvana Salvati – can consider themselves the best of the best, since it was a
fierce competition to get that top spot. And in the case of Silvana who competed in our
SAF Elite Championship, she can consider herself the very best of the best, since
our SAF Elite are the cream of the crop. You can read about Silvana in our
"People" section this month.
When the competitor quality is as high as this, it also
means something else: the SAF competitions, too, can be considered the best of the best.
Over the years, I’ve been to numerous competitions of this type and there hasn’t
been one that has approached the level of talent that was seen on the SAF stage in June.
And with this amount of momentum behind us, I can only assume that the SAF events are
going to get even better and, also, bigger.
Our next competition will be held on November 7, 2009, in
Ottawa, Canada, and it will feature something new: the first-ever SAF Elite Challenge
competition. In the past, the November show has had only the Fitness Model and Figure
Model categories; there’s never been an Elite component other than at our annual show
in June. Furthermore, the SAF competitors were invited to the Elite competition.
That’s now changing. In 2010, SAF Elite competitors will have to qualify for the SAF
Elite Championship and these new Challenge competitions are where they’ll do it. The
top three in the SAF Elite Challenge in November will qualify for the 2010 SAF Elite
Championship.
With the Summer ’09 show over but still so fresh in my
mind, it’s seems strange to already be thinking about the event coming up in
November. But when your goal is to showcase the best of the best and nothing less,
there’s not enough time to take a rest. Look for more great things to come.
. . . Doug Schneider
das@seriousaboutfitness.com
For more information about our SAF Model Search events,
please see www.SAFModelSearch.com.
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