“Why I became a bodybuilder”

The event was not particularly well attended but athletes from around the province came in their numbers to compete, the loud noise from the small crowd cheering them on. As the athletes posed for the judges, members of the audience shouted to them to keep or change a certain pose or to tighten up a certain muscle.

In the under 19 division, there were two athletes that stood out; they seemed to only be competing against each other. Nineteen-year-old Darius Weber, wearing number 65, and his biggest rival, 16-year-old Yanga Betho, wearing number 122, have two very different stories about how and why they took up bodybuilding.

Weber, who started when he was 15, said he took up the sport after his brother’s friend introduced him to it. For Betho it was his way of keeping himself off the streets, since there was a lot of gang violence in his community.

Weber said, “I love bodybuilding and will never quit. It is not easy. It has its challenges, like preparing for a competition, when you must work very hard and sometimes change training routines. I get a lot of support from home and my community because even the young ones see me as their role model … Whenever they see me, they always ask if I’m going to gym, and they want to come with me.”

Betho, who would love to represent the country in the sport, said, “The support I get from my family is what keeps me going. Ever since I started bodybuilding I get a lot of respect from my community because a lot of guys who do bodybuilding do it so they can beat people around, and I don’t do that.”

Hoosain Bester, chairperson of the Western Province Bodybuilding Union said, “We will select a provincial team that will represent us in the nationals in PE. We encourage youngsters to join bodybuilding and to compete.”