Outgoing President of the Saint Lucia Amateur Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation (SLABBFF) Jacqueline Trim is confident and looking forward to the next four years to accomplish bigger and greater things when the Federation holds its Annual General Meeting (AGM) today at the Saint Lucia Olympic Committee (SLOC) Jonathan Everette conference room in La Clery from 3.00 p.m.
Also seeking re-election are two former national female bodybuilders, Monica Dudley, who will be vying for the post of 1st Vice- President. Dudley is also the SLABBFF’s representative on the Saint Lucia Olympic Committee (SLOC), and Melissa Joseph who will run for the post of Treasurer. Eugene Gabriel will run for 2nd Vice- President, Shermaine George for Secretary, a position she won at the last election, and Louis Andre Murray for Public Relations Officer his first stint on the executive.
The VOICE spoke to Trim pertaining her plans for the next four years for the sport of bodybuilding in Saint Lucia if she is re-elected.. This is what she had to say;
“So far the names we have received are the current executive’s that have shown their interest in continuing to serve and to date no one else is vying for the position. In consultation with the Director for Youth Development and Sports, Patrick Mathurin, we decided to let the membership know who the persons are and who have submitted information with one exception, the Public Relations Officer who is seeking office for the first time. We are therefore giving them an opportunity to have a look at the nominations and if they have any objections to anyone serving on the executive they can raise the objection within that week period and when we meet for the AGM we are going to elect the executive, also we will be presenting all of our reports for the last four years.”
According to Trim, the new executive will have a four year period in office and they are following the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) time frame. The CAC election should have been held this year at the last championship, but because of the Covid-19 pandemic a number of countries were not able to travel to El Salvador, therefore they have moved the election to Barbados in July, 2022.
She explained that it is individual athletes who are current members of the SLABBFF, persons who have completed membership forms.
“After the election, we are going to be re-registering the athletes, because our focus is to have the SLABBFF operate in a different manner. At present more is expected from us, from the Ministry for Youth Development and Sports and the SLOC, so we have a lot more things to put in place, therefore we are going to be re-registering our membership. We are going to have a data base to highlight the athlete’s competition history, so when the various stakeholders ask about an athlete we can simply pull up his/her file and relate everything about that particular athlete in question, Trim said.
“From a CAC level, if our athletes go to and compete at CAC and obtain their Pro Card we need to be able to have their competition history ready so they can receive their PRO Card. We also want to give our athletes a Competition Passport and in that passport will have a stamp of every competition / championship they compete in and they themselves will have a recorded history of their competition rights, so as a result of that, we need to re-register everybody so they can have a passport,” Trim added.
Any plan to get coaches certified? Trim said, “With Bodybuilding it is a bit different and is very risky as well and if the coaches have no idea what they are doing, they are going to destroy the athlete through bad training. I know too many athletes who have been injured because of the training they have had.”
She added, “At the SLABBFF, we are working to get our coaches certified by the International Bodybuilding Federation (IBBF) following which the SLABBFF will have coaches who can literally take the athletes from a very young age to maturity. At present we are mandated by IBBF to introduce the sport to nine year olds, from the primary school level, so you cannot have coaches who are not IBBF certified to train nine year olds, they will destroy the children. The coaches must understand the growth spurt, how the body grows and what type of training to give the young aspiring athletes at various stages of their life.”
At what point does the SLABBFF intend to introduce bodybuilding at the secondary school level? “What we are trying to do presently and because we do not have a national gym, all gyms are privately owned therefore if the athlete has to go to a gym somebody has to pay the cost. One of the things we are hoping to do as early as possible during the term of the new executive is to get a national gym setup and we are working toward that goal.”
“We are also in the process of setting up the Weightlifting Federating (WLF). We have already received equipment from Pan American Weightlifting Federation (PAWLF), the equipment is currently stored at the SLOC House in La Clery. All we need is a venue to house the equipment and to start. That national gym will not just be for bodybuilders, but all sporting disciplines across the board, no matter what sporting discipline you’re into, you will need a certain level of weight training, the national gym will meet the needs of all athletes.”
Will the weightlifting component fall under the SLABBFF? “For now, yes. The WLF and the SLABBFF, will be under one umbrella, the same executive and hopefully/ eventually at some point we can separate the two, but for now because of limited manpower and resources the SLABBFF is running both at the same time.”
In terms of the number of affiliates under the SLABBFF watch, Trim said, “We do not have affiliates locally and the reason why is, we have members who are the athletes. The gyms are not affiliated to the SLABBFF. The Ministry for Youth and Sports in collaboration with us have been trying to get the gym owners to buy into being affiliated to the SLABBFF. The gyms are privately owned, so it is difficult to mandate them to become affiliates. We are trying to see if they can be incentivize to become affiliates of the SLABBFF.”
