Part 8 - Results of the 2011 Ontario Naturals

The results for figure short are in. Just before re-entering the stage, Pam whispers in my ear "you've got this." It made me feel good, however, I knew it could go any way. None of us were in top form for this event. Pam and Steph were carrying a little extra weight, while I needed more mass to improve my shape.

In 3rd place, Sue Champagne. In 2nd place, Stephanie Meunier. The winner of the figure short class, Pamela Gorrie. I'm disappointed but not devastated. Being last is quite humbling and serves as a good kick in the butt. I congratulate Pam backstage but couldn't find Steph. Initially, I thought she left because she was upset with the results, but I find out later that she went to eat pizza.

Sue & Lynda

Stephanie, Pamela, Sue

It's an opinionated sport and we don't always agree with the results. As well, the judges can at times choose poorly just as a referee can make a bad call. We have to roll with the punches. Steph believes it was fixed since Pam had said she entered as a favour to Jim Morris, the promoter. I've been in this game long enough to know that the promoter has no involvement with the judging. Ron Hache, the head judge, is a professional judge with the IFBB and has nothing to gain from allowing a provincial event to be fixed. Similar to other sports, the promoters and judges know many of the competitors and must put any personal feelings aside when they're performing their duties. Demonstrating favouritism can cause them to lose their card.

Here's how it works. A typical judging panel consists of seven judges, a head judge and a statistician. Upon seeing the competitors compared in their compulsory poses, each judge rank them in the order they feel the outcome should be (i.e., 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc). The head judge collects the score sheets and reviews them to ensure there are no glaring discrepancies. The statistician throws out the highest and lowest score for each competitor to eliminate possible inconsistencies, then adds up the remaining five scores from which the placings are determined.

At the end of the evening, I asked to see the score sheet and stored it in my photographic memory. This is what it looked like for the figure short class

Pamela Gorrie             1   1   1   1   2   3   3       (8)
Stephanie Meunier      1   1   2   2   2   3   3      (10)
Sue Champagne         1   2   2   2   3   3   3      (12)

Moving on now, the results of the figure grandmasters are in. This one was no surprise. Lynda Jager was the clear winner and successfully defended her title. Congratulations Lynda! We posed together for the cameras and vowed to meet again. A good, clean, fair competition. Sharing the stage with Lynda was the best part of the weekend.

Sue and Sheilagh

Sue and Elke

Let's pack 'er up and be on our way then. We stayed another night in Hamilton then headed off to Kitchener to spend a day with Ray, Elke and the family. On the way home, we dropped in on Sheilagh McDermott and Anne Gregoire to share the weekend's experiences with them. Sheilagh and Annie are friends from the dancing world and were key to helping me get ready for the competition. They supported my efforts and pushed me to work on my stage presentation.

So I went away from the weekend with tips from Ray and advice from the judges. I beat nobody, but I'm proud of my accomplishments nonetheless. In a nutshell, the advice I received was to replace my bikini top with one that better complements my physique, do something with my hair, get a better tan and command the stage with more confidence. What I did not hear was that I should go back to the gym and rebuild my body, though I know there are definite improvements necessary there as well.

Six weeks until the 2011 Ottawa Championships, the event I'd been targeting all along..........