Introduction
This 2011 8th series started just before the Feb 22nd Earthquake in Christchurch. Some of our entrants lost family members and friends in this quake and many suffered major damage to their home and businesses, some for a second time having already been affected by the September quake and certainly many of our entrants endured 1000′s more aftershocks as the competition continued.
As a result of the EQ we gave entrants, nationwide, the chance to take a pause by adding on 10 weeks to the competition and so began our longest competition ever as well as our largest. While some had to drop out, many others joined us for that final 20 weeks.
In the end almost $17,000 in prizes were given away this series thanks to the generosity of our wonderful sponsors and when asked “Do you consider yourself to have been successful on this journey?”
98.8% of entrant feedback said YES.
and when asked “Would you recommend the 20 Week Body & Lifestyle Competition” 98.7% said YES.
Congratulations to everyone who competed. It has been an amazing journey.
A list of winners is provided below and photos from the awards night can be found by clicking here
OVERALL BODY SHAPE CHANGE
Sponsor: Horleys
- Female Winner: Cindy. Trainer: Tracey Butler
- Cindy lost 37.6kgs over the course of the competition and as such has been a wonderful role model for her 6 children who are learning the value of taking care of themselves. Cindy’s life is very full and while it would be easy to put herself further down the line and let personal challenges get in her way she has not given up. She has stayed focused and recognised small goals are important.
- Award night photo
BEST CHANGES IN ABDOMINALS
Sponsor: Elite Fitness
- Male Winner: Nole McAuley. Trainer: Amanda Armitage
- Noel lost an incredible 25cm from his waist measurement and his bodyfat reduced from 23.5% to 11.5%. His strength and posture improved and he now has reduced pain and more movement in his lower back and shoulders.
- Award Night Photo of Noel
- Female Winner: Robyn Richens. Trainer: Tracey Butler
- 53rs young,Robyn lost an incredible 25cm in total from her waist, hips and abdominals. She has improved her plank time (Abdominal Strength Test) by 198%, the number of crunchies she does by 212% and her total push ups by a whopping 272%.
- Award Night Photo of Robyn
BEST CHANGES TO UPPER BODY
Sponsor: Hardy’s Health Stores in Palmerston North
- Male Winner : Noel McAuley. Trainer: Amanda Armitage
- Noel lost an incredible 25cm from his waist measurement and his bodyfat reduced from 23.5% to 11.5%. His strength and posture improved and he now has reduced pain and more movement in his lower back and shoulders.
- Award Night Photo of Noel
- Female Winner: Leanne Hobbs. Trainer: Di Lauder
- A previous award winner Leanne yet again showed significant improvements in muscle & strength gain as well as improvements in upper body flexibility & lower body fat levels.
- Not at the Awards night but you can see a pick of her and all her details from the last series here.
BEST CHANGE IN LOWER BODY
Sponsor: Nu skin.
- Female Winner: Wendy Pearce. Trainer: Roger Symes
- Wendy, not only won a free entry into the competition she won a Galvanic Spa ($500) for losing 35cm from her lower body (hips, thigh and calf) and had an 800% increase in her leg press weight. She also lost 19.1kg.
- Award Night Photos of Wendy
MOST PROFESSIONAL PHYSIQUE
Sponsor:Jean Scott
- Male Winner: Dave Callis. Trainer: Dwayne Thomas
- The Earthquakes dealt Dave a very hard blow but come April he jumped back on board and did absolutely amazingly. Increasing his strength and his resilience every day – as a result his physique looked awesome by the end of it all. Huge congrats Dave.
- Awards Night Photo
- Female Winner: Rebecca Moss. Trainer: Tracey Butler
- Rebecca lost 7.6 kg and got down to just 12.7% body fat while increasing her lean muscle mass, her overall strength and general fitness. This is Bec’s 3rd time competing and she has previously won the New Mum’s Award. Competing in EQ hit Christchurch she says ”I work full time and have a husband a teenager and a toddler at home. Training for me either happened at 5am, a lunchtime session with Tracey in the park and an evening session in the gym, most nights not getting home until after 10pm.” Huge congrats Bec.
- Award Night Photo of Rebecca
BEST CHANGES IN STRENGTH
Sponsors: The Classic Hits Richard Dryden Breakfast Show and Health Intel.
- Male Winner: Dave “Sonny Bill” Hawes. Trainer: Pascale Battrick
- Dave increased his leg press from 169kg to 353 kg, his 5 minute plank from 2 mins to over 5 mins and his 1 rep bench press increased by 30kg. 58 yrs young he stacked on 5kg of muscle, can now do 50 full push ups and for the first time in 30 years can touch his toes.
- Award Night Photo of Dave
- Female Winner: Abbey Moore. Trainer: Jason Wells
- Abbey went from being able to leg press 170kg and increased this to 280kg! She has also increased her push ups in 1 minute from 32 to 56 and can now do a full chin up by herself.
- Award Night Photo of Abbey
BEST CHANGE IN CARDIO FITNESS
Sponsor: Em’s Power cookies
- Female Winner: Sam Walker. Trainer: Desra Barron
- Sam’s improvements were phenomenal. Some of the best that the judges have ever seen.
- Award Night Photo of Sam
- Male Winner: Alan Lover: Trainer: Cate Grace.
- Alan lost 3.9kg of weight and 5.1% of body fat and went from doing 0 chinups to 6. He also trained for the Auckland 1/2 Marathon which he has since competed in.
- Award Night Photo of Alan
BEST CHANGE IN FLEXIBILITY
Sponsor: Circo Arts (lost in the EQ)
- Female Winner: Kendra Street: Trainer: Cate Grace The details: Suffering from rheumatoid arthritis Kendra is often in a lot of pain and is on the waiting list for a knee replacement. Being able to touch her toes or turn the pedals on a bike seemed almost impossible at the begining and by the end of the competition she could do both.
- Photo of Kendra from the Awards Night
- Male Winner: Dave Race: Trainer: Cate Grace The details: Dave improved his flexibility across 6 measures including 11cm in an upper body test and 17cm on a sit and reach (touching his toes) test. He also completed the altitude challenge hiking to 1000 m with a 10kg pack on his back!.
- Photos of the winners at the Awards night.
BEST CHANGE TO LIFESTYLE
Sponsor: Mike Catton
- Winner: Glenys Breeze. Trainer: Charlotte Breeze
- Glenys, having won her entry into the competition as part of a DHB promotion, dropped over 20kg, added 10 cm on to her flexibility, took 7 min off her 2km treadmill time and in the process normalized her blood pressure. Glenys continually updated us with photos of races she was entering, hills she was climbing and the bike rides she was doing. We understand she is now planning to enter the 2013 Coast to Coast as part of a team.
- Photo of Glenys from the Awards night
ENTRANTS CHOICE
Sponsor: nWow!
- Female winner: Debbie Elliston. Trainer: Tracey Butler
- Each series Debbie sets herself an amazing task and this year was no different. Big congrats Deb.
- Male winner: Roger Bates. Trainer: Bronwyn Adams Hooper
- Roger wins the award for how well he coped with his injury.
- Photo of Roger from the Awards night
TUTUMAN Award
Sponsor: Tutuman
- Winner: Brooke Olliver Burnside. Trainer: Tracey Butler
- This award is given to an entrant who is 16 or under and we gave it to Brooke (the daughter of an entrant who had won an Award in 2010) for all her positive effort to incorporate fitness into her daily life.
- Photo of Brooke at the Awards
OPALS Award
- Winner: Jan Bethal. Trainer: Jean Scott.
- Photo of the beautiful Jan
STAYING ON TRACK Award
Sponsor: Mike Catton
- Winner: Marcella de Wys. Trainer: Michaela Knudsen
- Awarded to an entrant who maintains there positive changes, usually achieved in a previous competition.
- Photo of Marcella from the Awards
NEW MUMS Award
Sponsor: Pure Health & Wellbeing
- Winner: Carolyn Wild. Trainer: Bronwyn Adams Hooper.
- Awarded to Carolyn for achieving so very much during this competition and with a child under 18 months.
CLASSIC HITS 97.8: Public Vote
- Winner: Susan Murphy. Trainer: Freya Thomson
- See the pics and read all about Susan here
SUSAN’S 500 STEP Challenge
- Winner: Sue Henderson. Trainer: Sheta Swinerd
- Thanks to Susan Murphy, the entrant who won the Classic Hits vote, this competition emerged and while it was a random draw Sue Henderson nailed a good time on it. Sue also lost 19.3kg in the competition, succeeded in our super challenging Sprint to the Finish and was a never ending support to others on our Facebook page. Her entertaining story is an inspiration to us all. Thanks so much for sharing it with us Sue. Click here for The Evolution Of Sue Henderson
MAKEOVER
Sponsor: Makeup by Marie
- Winner Alison Syme: Trainer: Bronwyn Adams Hooper
- Alison won this simply by entering one of the weekly comps along the way but she did do an awesome effort over the whole 30 weeks, battling on through injuries she was regular seen climbing mountains, getting out on her bike and excelling in her training sessions.
- Photo of Alison
THE TREADMILL – from Elite Fitness
- Winner: Bronwyn Bentley. Trainer: Rachel Marks
- Entrants were eligible to win the treadmill by doing one or more of the 3 challenges we dished out and the random prize went to a well deserving Bronwyn who is a second time entrant having won the ‘Pass It On’ Award in 2010 for getting more people at her workplace being active and she was also the inspiration behind the 1000m altitude challenge that we did this year.
SUPPORTERS PRIZE
Sponsors: The Coffee Guy
- Winner: Liz Baker. Trainer: Jean Scott.
OVERALL WINNING ENTRANT
Sponsors: Diamond Mine Jewellers
- Winner: Cindy. Trainer: Tracey Butler.
SPECIAL MENTIONS
- Mel Spencer – “WOW, a winner in every sense of the word”! – Trainer: Tracey Butler
- Sue Henderson – “so close to a win”– Trainer: Sheta Swinerd
- Maureen Manson– 5yrs younger, faster fitter stronger! – Trainer:Jean Scott
- Christina Clarkson – “so much more than we ever expected, just keeps on getting better”– Trainer:Bronwyn Adams Hooper.
- Carolyn Cooper – Catch Fitness is going to create a ‘balance’ category & name it after you. You are awesome – Trainer: Cate Grace
- Amanda Taylor – 1000km later she’s 7 yrs younger than what she started out at ! 250km run & 750km bike in 30 weeks with a real age of only 34.9! – Trainer: Bronwyn Adams Hooper.
- Kerrie De Haan – “Going to the West Coast to meet other entrants for a swim! Rock on” – Trainer: Michelle Edwards
- Nicola Dance – 4 km a day for 14 days! – Trainer: Bronwyn Adams Hooper.
- Wendy Davies – Awesome effort Wendy – Trainer: Cate Grace
- Nikki Collins – from Reefton. The best long distance effort we’ve seen. – Trainer:Elly McGuiness
- Tess Braithwaite – who moved to Dunedin and also did an awesome long distance effort – Trainer: Cate Grace
ENTRANT FEEDBACK
Some results from our Series 8 Entrant Feedback form 
- click to enlarge.
