CAC Champion Valrie Bennett

Valrie Bennett, the reigning winner of the 2003 Central American and Caribbean Body Building Federation (CACBBF) championships, was negotiating a tight schedule when we spoke to her. It was Thursday, March 4, and she was leaving for the Arnold Classic in Columbus, Ohio, scheduled to take place March 6. But, before she took off to the United States, along with team-mates representing Jamaica, she chatted with all woman.

This interview came on the heels of the Jamaica Amateur Body Building and Fitness Association’s (JABBFA) press and sponsorship launch at the Hilton recently. They outlined their diary of events for 2004, thus heralding the start of a new season and a body-building craze.

Meanwhile, Bennett’s position is unique. After all, how many of us have the discipline and tenacity to go to the gym daily (after a hard day’s work), in order to train our muscles for competitions?

Well, Bennett has fine-tuned the art and it has paid off tremendously.

Not only was she the winner of the inaugural championship for Body Fitness in the Caribbean, but she had also made Jamaica a historical first in the region. She tasted victory then, even had a premonition about the win and has fulfilled a long-standing desire -to compete for Jamaica.

Bennett’s win allowed her to beat seven other competitors from the Central America and Caribbean regions.

“When I was leaving that morning to the Bahamas for the competition, I had a feeling that I was going to make the Jamaican national anthem be played. For your country’s anthem to play, you must be a first place winner-it’s only reserved for that purpose,” she told all woman, while busying about her Kingston-based apartment gathering her stuff for travel.

“I’m happy to have won, but sometimes I do forget. It’s not always in the centre nor the forefront of my mind,” says the thirty-something body fitness guru, adding that at times she’d have to be reminded.

She has a relaxed disposition, cheery, accommodating and polite. The right persona for competitions and perhaps for her legal secretary position at a law firm.

President of JABBFA, Frederick Smith, confirms that fact and tells all woman that Bennett has all the right qualities that would indeed stand her well as an athlete in the body awareness sport.

“She is a very unassuming person who is confident and competitive. She is also very responsible, in terms of always being on time and come always ready and prepared,” said the former body builder, now president of the fitness association for the past three consecutive years.

Meantime, Bennett confessed that she would like to make a living with her Pro (professional) card, but claimed that the arena, (body fitness) which is really an advance level of a bikini contest she says, is very competitive.

But according to her, she’ll see how that goes.

The former Vere Technical student reveal to our pages that the sport is an expensive one.

“It is a very expensive sport because the supplements are costly and, of course, it takes money to maintain your diet,” she explained while declaring that she ate five times daily – two liquids and three solid meals-to maintain her well-toned body.

“In this economical climate, it’s not cheap – everything adds up when you calculate the price of bikinis, gym facilities where ever you go, food, supplements, travel, accommodation and other things in between,” she said while admitted that the benefit of being fit, especially for a female, were very rewarding.

“I’ve been doing weight training for the past ten years and should I become pregnant, it will be much easier for me to get back in shape,” Bennett pointed out, extolling the virtue of having a disciplined body and a strong mind.

“Females, in my opinion, go to the gym for two weeks or for a month and whenever they see some improvement in their bodies, they start complaining about being tired, having pains, not having the time, then they just stop working out,” she declared.

She recommended budding up with a partner to get mileage from your gym membership. And says it takes team spirit sometimes to get you where you’d like to be. Body building, which encompasses body fitness, helps to tone and maintain your muscle mass – which starts to decline once you’re in your thirties.

“I train with the guys-they push me and are genuinely interested in my body-building career,” she said.

She is in a committed relationship at the moment and seems happy with her life.