HARARE - Reigning Mr Zimbabwe, Champion Chienderamwano, has been ruled out of the Mr and Ms Ironman contest to be held in Kadoma in a fortnight.
Chienderamwano is currently nursing a shoulder injury and hopes to be ready for the Musclemania Zimbabwe contest set for August 9 at Ochi City.
The Botswana-based bodybuilder, who is sponsored by a South African nutritional company Nutritech, won two of Zimbabwe’s biggest bodybuilding contests last year.
He first won the Musclemania title in June before adding the Mr Zimbabwe crown in November at the Harare International School.
“I sustained this injury last year and was subjected to pain-killing injections just to compete in the shows. Imagine living on injections every week in order to ease the pain,” Chienderamwano told the Daily News.
“It was really painful but I thank my wife, she has been doing everything for me. Since that injury I was still doing light workouts and just got back to serious business mid-last month.
“Ironman is a prestigious contest and would have loved to take part, but unfortunately I just have to put my focus on defending the titles that I won last year.”
Meanwhile, the National Federation of Zimbabwe Bodybuilding and Fitness (NFZBBF) is set to invite bodybuilders from either Zambia or Botswana to give the Mr and Ms Ironman contest a regional flavour.
NFZBBF is targeting Zambia’s top bodybuilder Sly Mwila or Botswana’s Gontse Seschele to guest-pose on the day of the contest.
Quite Shangai, NFZBBF spokesperson, expressed satisfaction with the preparations for the Odyssey- sponsored event.
“Everything is going according to plan at the moment. We have Odyssey as our principal sponsor while Capri and Kadoma Country Club have added some attractive prizes in cash and kind,” said Shangai.
“We are also quoting at least one top bodybuilder from the region in line with our programme of creating regional ties considering also that Zambia also invited us to attend at the Mr Zambia on August 30.”