The 2025 Central America and Caribbean (CAC) Bodybuilding and Fitness Championships, the 52nd iteration of this competition, is coming to Saint Lucia in September. It’s the first time that Saint Lucia will host CAC, after enjoying success at the championships over the years. It’s also poised to be one of the biggest shows ever in the history of CAC, with a few new features to pique the interest of fans of the human form.
The Saint Lucia Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation is working on multiple fronts to make the event a reality. From logistics to fundraising to accommodation to team preparation, the Jacqueline Trim-led organisation is pulling out all the stops to ensure that all goes smoothly for the September event at the Pavilion in Rodney Bay. The CAC family has also expressed its excitement about coming to Saint Lucia later this year.
The SLBBFF bid to host the championships five years ago in Santo Domingo. The CAC family includes 32 territories, and it is anticipated that approximately 250 athletes, coaches, and delegates will be on island for just about a week. Season tickets will grant patrons access to the athletes’ weighing sessions and two days of competition, Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, visitors will get a chance to see the island with arranged tours.
“The championship is scheduled to run over a two-day period, which is Friday the 26th of September, where you have the semifinals, and Saturday the 27th where you have the finals,” explained SLBBFF president Jacqueline Trim. “Because of the number of athletes and the number of categories within that competition we had to span it over a two-day period.”
Last year, Saint Lucia captured six medals in Georgetown, Guyana. Among them, Sherkym Daniel got silver and bronze in men’s classic physique and men’s bodybuilding. Kirby Charles and Jabari Brouet took silver and bronze in men’s physique. Gratious Octave took bronze in the fitness challenge. And Shani Victorin copped silver in the women’s fit model class.
Typically, though, Saint Lucia sends only a handful of athletes to compete at CAC. Trim noted that because a much larger national team is expected at home.
“We’ll be going through a selection process to select athletes to participate,” she stated. “But instead of just having maybe eight athletes we can have at least 20 to 30 athletes to participate in that championship. So we are now on a drive to sensitise athletes around the island to prepare for that championship.”
In March, SLBBFF hosted an athlete preparation seminar, featuring Antigua & Barbuda’s five-time Sportswoman of the Year and 2024 IFBB Pro World Champion, Kimberly Percival. Percival, one of the rising stars of international bodybuilding, led a motivational and educational session that included nutrition tips, training secrets, and lessons on anti-doping.
This year’s championship will feature over 14 competitive categories, including some new ones. Trim is also a decorated judge, and she noted that this year’s competition will incorporate kids’ fitness and a CrossFit challenge, which will test endurance, stamina, and overall conditioning.
“You have women’s physique. You have body fitness, which is what we call figure. You have the fit model, male and female. And you have the mixed pairs for both bodybuilding and physique,” she explained. “We will have an event now where you have two minutes to perform as many reps as you can in the specified exercise. And you have the speed feat, where you have to do 30 reps in the shortest time.”
A major highlight of the CAC Championship is the opportunity for select athletes to earn their professional cards, as Bermuda-based Marina Pierre-Wilkinson did most recently in 2015. British pro Darrell Rabess is also of Saint Lucian parentage. The pro enables these athletes to get on the international stage and earn money in the fitness sphere.
Roger Boyce, vice president of the Central American and Caribbean Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation, told St Lucia Times that the sport is on the rise in the region. In addition to Antigua and Barbuda’s Percival, who has a dozen pro bikini fitness titles internationally, the likes of Suriname’s Eddie Wilson, Barbados’ Ramon Morgan, Lamarr Coward, and Dionne Thompson are also making their names globally.
“Anytime at all, Caribbean athletes could be in the top three in the world. It says a lot for us,” Boyce opined. “So we have Kimberly, she’s in the top three. Eddie from Suriname, top three. Ramona Morgan from Barbados, she was in the top 10 at the World Championship last year. Lamarr Coward was second in the classic physique. Dionne, top five finisher.
“So we are not doing bad. We’re not doing bad at all. What I would love to see, though, I would like to see from the amateur end, more athletes coming out and representing. I think that we are on the rise again, and we hope that we start to see some more new interest in it.”
In the past, the likes of Rolandson ‘the Beast’ Auguste, Lawrence ‘Robocop’ Stephens, Alphonsus ‘Shortman’ Joseph, Bill Wilson, Julian Felix, all the way back to Earl Sandiford have excelled at that level. Speaking to Saint Lucia’s proud history in regional bodybuilding, Boyce believes that a bit of home cooking might be just the thing needed to jumpstart the next generation of champions from the Helen of the West.
“Well, we hoping by doing this, by having a CAC at home in Saint Lucia, that we can have some new interest coming out of it… I think that you’ll be proud, man. You’ll have a lot to write about, a lot of positive things, I must say.
“I think that this year is going to be a special year for CAC. I don’t remember it ever being in Saint Lucia, and I think that everybody is looking forward to be in Saint Lucia. I think it’s going to be a big one. Now it’s open a bit to Miami, so even we can have athletes from the US coming to Saint Lucia for this CAC… I’m looking forward to a great championship there in Saint Lucia.”
The competition is expected to cost close to half a million EC dollars. The national federation is working with the Government of Saint Lucia and reaching out to the private sector for support. Boyce noted that aside from sourcing accommodation and competition venues, the local organising committee also has to be cognisant of the dietary needs of the elite athletes, many of whom will have specific meal requirements.
“It takes a bit of planning,” he said, pointing out that this event has been in the making since 2023. “It does take a bit of planning, and I think that Saint Lucia has been looking at it now, I think two years. So it takes a bit of planning to get it right.”
