Mitch Byrne of Laban Fitness & Martial Arts Studio was in the United Kingdom in October to compete in the United Kingdom Drug Free Bodybuilding Association (UKDFBA) 2016 U.K. and International Championships in the international ladies bikini competition, in which she placed fourth.
Byrne qualified for the international competition held in Coventry by taking first place at the INBF Canada Central Naturals competition in Winnipeg in June.
The experience of competing in the U.K was daunting, says Byrne.
“My competitors, they have these nice better-looking bikinis and all of them have their own person to be their makeup artist,” said Byrne. “I was just there by myself really thinking ‘Oh my God, there’s no way that I’m going to place,’ because they’re really different than Canadian competitions. They’re really big, more looking like beauty queens and like a Victoria’s Secret model with muscles.”
Her nervousness about how well she would do continued once the competition began.
“I felt like everybody was really looking good and the judges didn’t seem to be looking at me,” Byrne recalls. “I want to think positive because I don’t want to go home representing Canada and not taking home anything. I said I travelled so far away just to be like last place. I said to myself at least out of that 15 of my category I don’t want to be the last. But when they called the top five I got called, Canada, so I was so happy and excited, too.”
Judges said that Byrne needs more muscle in order to compete with the winners in her class but that she had the correct level of leanness and a polished presentation.
The UKDFBA takes stringent measures to ensure that the athletes in its competitions are not taking any banned substances, administering tests to all the competitors prior to the competition and having them take a polygraph test as well.
“Everything to make sure that we are drug-free, they did it,” Byrne says. “Whoever placed first place, actually, they get tested again on that day because they want to make sure that they are really clean. It’s really rigid that they make sure you’re not taking anything.”
Once the competition was over there was time for a little sightseeing in London before returning to Canada, though prices meant Byrne didn’t get to indulge in everything she enjoys.
“London is expensive, double the price,” she says. “I didn’t even shop at all because it’s so expensive but we did lots of sightseeing, for sure.”
Byrne, who trained for seven weeks prior to this competition, is now shifting her focus to helping others prepare for the Manitoba Amateur Body Building Association competition in Winnipeg next year.
“I’m focused on that for now but who knows?” she says. “Sometimes I change my mind after I train people and I compete also.”
Even when she isn’t training for a competition, Byrne says 70 per cent of her diet is always healthy, which makes it easy to make the switch to preparing for a competition if training other people to do the same reawakens her desire to compete.
“What makes me compete again and think to compete is actually when I see who I’m training and I’m like, ‘What am I doing? I should be doing this because I can do it again,’ but let’s see how it goes next year. I prefer to really focus for sure on my clients then maybe compete, let’s see. I can’t decide right now.”
