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Text and Photos by North American Bodies The 2007 Musclemania World Bodybuilding Championships was held November 15-17, 2007 in Los Angeles, California at a new site, the Wilshire Grand Hotel in the downtown area. There was a large field of competitors from many countries, with a large audience of spectators anxious to see them compete. The Musclemania World Bodybuilding competition was held in conjunction with other contests as part of the Fitness Hollywood weekend, including the Model America, Fitness America and Bikini America shows. All of the shows were coordinated and well-orchestrated as many events, preliminaries and finals were being conducted continuously and sometimes simultaneously throughout the weekend. Many sponsors and industry reps were on site with booths in the Expo area of the hotel’s conference center. The Musclemania shows provide natural athletes a high profile with lots of media in attendance taking photos and videos. The NorthAmericanBodies.com site was also in attendance once again to bring you this report on the results and some photos.
  Click Image To Enlarge. All Musclemania Competitors.
 Click Image To Enlarge. All Division Winners.
The male bodybuilders were judged in two novice classes (Lightweight and Heavyweight) and five open classes (Bantam, Light, Middle, Light-Heavy and Heavy), with an Overall winner to be determined in a posedown among the respective class winners. There were also classes for Masters (over 40 years of age), Juniors (ages 22 and under) and High School competitors. Judging is based on four criteria of equal weight: Symmetry 25%; Muscle Mass 25%; Conditioning 25%; Posing Presentation 25%.
Lightweights Scott Saunders won the clear victory among the Lightweights and earned the 1st place trophy and also wound up as the Overall Novice Champion. Anu McKnight took 2nd place and a clearly disappointed Angelo Rossi had to settle for the 3rd place award.
 Click Image To Enlarge. Novice Lightweight Winners (left), Overall Novice Winner (right). Heavyweights Akos Afda seemed like he would be taking top honors, but had to settle for 2nd place as Aubrey Preston wound up with the 1st place trophy to the clear disapproval of the audience. The 3rd place trophy went to Anto Antovski as 4th place fell to Rado Pagac who won this class a year earlier.
 Click Image To Enlarge. Novice Heavyweight Winners.
Bantamweights Gautom Kalita won the 1st place trophy in the Bantamweights. 2nd place went to Ricky Pampo with Danny Le 3rd place.
 Click Image To Enlarge. Men’s Bantamweight Winners. Lightweights Six competitors vied for the Lightweight honors, and it was veteran competitor Danny Hestor who claimed the 1st place trophy by a narrow margin. The 2nd place trophy went to Joel Ramintas, 3rd to Erick Cante, 4th to Jacob MacGee and 5th Randy Schlwing.
 Click Image To Enlarge. Men’s Lightweight Winners. Middleweights Ramakant Sharma beat out six other competitors to become take the Middleweight Class. Hart Octovian made the best showing in the finals, but had to settle for 2nd place as he was unable to overtake Ramakant’s strong showing in the preliminaries. The 3rd place trophy went to Moses Ajala, 4th to Rob Kitty and 5th to Jon Gadbilao.
 Click Image To Enlarge. Men’s Middleweight Winners. Light-Heavyweights Eleven men competed for top honors in the Light Heavyweight class, which proved to be the most hotly contested class. It was a showdown between the reigning Musclemania Juniors Champion Brad Castleberry and Reynaldo Pancho. By less than 1 point, Brad Castleberry claimed the 1st place trophy over Reynaldo who placed 2nd. The 3rd place trophy went to Sanjeev Narayan, 4th to Thayer Hill and 5th to Edward Latoza.
 Click Image To Enlarge. Men’s Light-Heavyweight Winners. Heavyweights In a class of eight Heavyweight competitors, it was James Ward Jr. who won the 1st place trophy. Ashfaq Butt took 2nd place and Lazo Freeman, who had the strongest showing in the finals round, took 3rd. In 4th place was Ristea Viorel and 5th place went to Carey Addison.
 Click Image To Enlarge. Men’s Heavyweight Winners. Overall Champion The five open class winners battled it out on stage and in the end, the Heavyweight class winner was James Ward Jr. was ultimately selected by the judges as the Overall Champion for the show, earning his Pro card.
 Click Image To Enlarge. Open Class Winner Comparisons.
 Click Image To Enlarge. Overall Men’s Open Champion James Ward Jr. Masters Thomas Hauck won the Masters 1st place trophy by fending off a strong challenge by Moses Ajala who placed a strong 2nd. The 3rd place trophy went to Paul Daley, 4th to Danny Le and 5th to Warner Bouzek.
 Click Image To Enlarge. Masters Winner Thomas Hauck.
 Click Image To Enlarge. Masters Competitors. Juniors The usually strong Juniors class only drew four competitors this year. Darren Grumbs proved to be the strongest in this field and won the Juniors title. The 2nd place trophy went to Habideen Olaniran and a disappointed Larry Camacho had to settle for 3rd. 4th place went to Marc Thomas.
 Click Image To Enlarge. Juniors Class Winners. High School Lance Maxwell was the sole competitor in the scholastic class, but he was nonetheless impressive for such a young bodybuilder and deserved the 1st place trophy.
 Click Image To Enlarge. High School Class Winner Lance Maxwell. Professional Division Ten Musclemania Pro’s showed up to lay claim 1st place bragging rights. The Musclemania Pro division is always a very strong and competitive contest to determine the best of the best. Five bodybuilders seem to stand out to the judges: Luis Plata, Hugh Ross, Tommy Alston, Bobby Wagner and Jeff Beckman. But it seemed to narrow down to Luis Plata, Hugh Ross and Tommy Alston. Hugh Ross seemed to have put on size and Tommy Alston showed superb conditioning, but in the end, it was Luis Plata that squeezed out the victory and was named the Pro Champion. Hugh took 2nd place and a disappointed Tommy Alston claimed 3rd. Bobby Wagner was 4th and Jeff Beckman, hurt by being a bit flat in prejudging, had to settle for 5th place.
 Click Image To Enlarge. Pro Competitors Posing Down.
 Click Image To Enlarge. Top 5 Pro Bodybuilders.
For whatever reason, only one woman registered to compete in bodybuilding. Marie Hanson as a result took the Overall Women‘s Bodybuilding title.
 Click Image To Enlarge. Women’s Champion Marie Hanson.
Overall, the 2007 Musclemania Worlds show was quite big success with a large field of quality natural athletes drawn from all over the world. We were very pleased to see many of the bodybuilders and models from www.NorthAmericanBodies.com competing in so many of the events, including NAB model Nick Jones, a Musclemania Pro, who did a great job as the emcee of the show. Also many congratulations go out to the show’s promoter Lou Zwick for once again orchestrating this last leg in a year of great regional, national and international shows. You can find more information, background stories, press releases, photos and videos about the Musclemania Worlds and other Musclemania and Model/Fitness/Bikini America shows at http://www.Musclemania.com. We will be eagerly looking forward to the 2008 Musclemania Worlds!
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