| Rules & Regulations July 1, 2003
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Dr. Ben Weider (right)
is the president of the IFBB, the international organization that sanctions the World
Championships. He's shown here with Sean and Frances Jackson, promoters of the 2003 CBBF
National World Qualifier.
(photo May 2003 by Doug Schneider) |
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Who Gets to Go to the 2003 IFBB
World Fitness and Body-Fitness (Figure) Championships?
The 2003 IFBB World Fitness and Body-Fitness Championships
are going to be held in Santa Susana, Spain, from September 26-29. Wow, what a location --
and it’s on the beach, too! This event is the most prestigious amateur competition of
this type in the world -- and the Canadian BodyBuilding Federation (CBBF) is the only organization in Canada
through which competitors can go. But the question is: Who in Canada gets to go?
The first thing you need to know is that you must be a CBBF
competitor -- competing in CBBF-sanctioned events, either nationally or through a member
province (see CBBF.net for a list of the member provinces). Although there are other
organizations in Canada that sanction fitness and figure events, the CBBF is the only one
affiliated with the IFBB. I always feel
sorry when I come across competitors who have competed in another organization’s
event, and their dream was really to go to the IFBB World Championships or attain IFBB Pro
status.
The event that qualifies competitors for the IFBB World
Championships is the CBBF National World Qualifier, and this year’s event is being
held on July 5 in Ancaster (Hamilton), Ontario. It’s here that CBBF Team Canada 2003
gets selected.
The next thing you need to know is that you must be a
drug-free competitor. The IFBB has a strict policy of Doping Control at their World
Championships, and they demand that every member country tests their competitors using the
strictest measures -- just like any other world-level amateur sport. So, every
competitor who competes at the World Championship must pass a Doping Control test in
order to qualify for the World Championship. No exceptions.
For Doping Control testing at the CBBF National World
Qualifier, the CBBF uses the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports (CCES). The CCES is Canada’s
government-recognized body for conducting such tests, and all their tests are to
International Olympic Committee standards since they work in conjunction with
Canada’s IOC Lab. If an athlete fails the drug test, not only can they not go to the
World Championships, they get a suspension, too, just like any athlete in any other sport
would. It’s simply foolish for any competitor who uses performance-enhancing drugs to
enter this contest.
Finally, there’s the size of the team that the CBBF
can send -- this is a limit that is not set by the CBBF, but by the IFBB, who will allow
only so many athletes from any one country, regardless of the country’s size.
For 2003, the IFBB has set the limit for fitness
competitors to three in total -- and not more than two from any one class (there are three
fitness classes: Short, Medium and Tall). I talked to Mark Smishek, president of the CBBF,
and he explained how the three will be chosen. According to Mark, each person will
obviously have had to pass the CCES’s test. After that, priority will be given to the
first-place winners of each of the three classes. If each first-place finisher wants to
go, they will be Canada’s representatives (providing they pass the drug test, too).
If any athlete fails the test or declines to go, then that opens things up for the
runner-up competitors. When choosing which runner-up will go, again the drug-testing rules
apply, and then it will go the CBBF Judging Committee who will use the results of the CBBF
National World Qualifier to decide.
As for body fitness (at the World Championships, figure
competition is called body fitness, but it is identical to figure as we know it in North
America), the same rules for team selection apply as for fitness, but the maximum number
of competitors that can go is two -- either one per class, or both from one class. This
makes perfect sense because in body fitness there are two height classes -- Short and Tall
-- not three like fitness. What’s exciting about body fitness this year, though, is
that 2003 marks the first year that Canada will be sending a team, since this is the first
time the CBBF has had a national-level qualifying event.
In the past years Canada has been represented by CBBF
National World Qualifier Champions Kary Odiatu, Nathalie Tabouillet, and Nadia Moussa at
the IFBB World Championships. After July 5th we’ll all know who the 2003 CBBF Team
Canada will consist of -- and who will be eligible to go to Spain in September!
...Doug Schneider
das@seriousaboutfitness.com |
