GABBFF establish coping mechanism to help athletes flex with challenges of Covid-19 Hosting a virtual competition under consideration

May 01, 2020 Sports

Given the continued shut down of all activities especially from a sports standpoint around the world, the Guyana Amateur Body Building and Fitness Federation (GABBFF) has been over the past couple of weeks, contemplating ways and means of keep their athletes active in some way, shape or form.

Athletes on stage at Lichas Hall in Linden before the start of the 2020 edition of Novices held on February 15.

President of the Federation, Keavon Bess informed that they have been working on providing coping mechanisms for the athletes to successfully ride the waves of the coronavorus which has brought virtually everything to a standstill.
“From a sports psychological point of view we want the athletes, even though they are not competing to have that feeling of camaraderie; so in light of that, we would have established a WhatsApp group where the athletes on a daily basis can post different stuff and have conversations on varying issues from body building to general sports just to give them that coping mechanism, a medium to express themselves amongst their peers.”
Bess who had some weeks ago informed that their Intermediate competition which should have come off in tandem with the re-introduction of the Mr. Berbice competition had to be postponed. The senior nationals too have suffered as a result of the coronavirus and there might very well not be any body building competition until eth end of the year.

Keavon Bess

If the situation does not improve, Bess did publicly state that seniors might be put off until next year, point out also that procuring sponsorship at the end of this all would be another major challenge for the Federation.
To circumvent these realities, the GABBFF President informed that they are currently exploring the possibility of hosting a virtual competition.
“We haven’t yet worked out the logistics as to how the competition would be done or which social media platform would host same. It’s not a competition for athletes top add to their CVs; it’s basically a competition to help the athletes with camaraderie and give them something to cheer for in these very difficult and sad times.
It is also to give the fans something to cheer about and remind the fans that the bodybuilders are still active and still putting together the best package possible to showcase to them whenever that time arises. So this is something we’re working on, it’s quite doable.”
Bess indicated that the GABBFF would be approaching long time corporate partner Fitness Express whose Manager/Owner Mr. Jamie McDonald would be written to shortly inviting him to support the event which he is confident would be a hit among the athletes and fans.
The Federation Bess also indicated would be touching base with all active athletes during the course of the coming days to offer words of encouragement during these testing times.