The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
SATURDAY 26 March saw Bulawayo based bodybuilder, Shyleen Nyathie win the women fitness development at the Novice Zimbabwe national competition held at the Zimbabwe College of Music in Harare.
The 25-year-old Nyathie was adjudged to be better than the five other bodybuilders.
Nyathie of Body Works Gym is excited to have won the Ms Novice title. She described the show as a good experience where she got to learn new things.
“I feel great, I am happy, I am excited, it was a nice thing to go through, it was good to experience and learn new things,’’ Nyathie said.
On what she thought stood out for her on the day, Nyathie had this to say “My walk, my body, I actually worked really hard to prepare for this competition. I think everything about me was okay.”
Nyathie has been bodybuilding since 2018 but took long to enter national competitions because other things kept getting in the way.
“I’ve been training for four years from 2018, but at some point, I stopped but then I resumed again and I haven’t stopped until now. There was a lot of things that were going on, trying to work, start businesses so finally things got better, I just thought I should just try out this since it’s something that I’ve always dreamt of doing,’’ she said.
She narrated his difficult it was for her to forego some of the food she likes and cut down on her water intake as she prepared for the competition, which she intensified with three weeks before the show.
“I did have a specific diet and the training was difficult, you stop eating the foods that you like eating, you start training harder than you usually do and less water, you can’t survive without water and proper food, I had to drop all that. It was really painful but I managed to get through,’’ Nyathie said.
She was fortunate enough to have renowned fitness coach, Simon Gamha to assist with her preparations.
“I had Simon Gamha, he helped throughout the process, trained me very well and I would like to thank him for that.”
Nyathie also had all the assistance she needed from Body Works Gym, whose director Nathan Greenland managed to attend the show.
“Body Works sponsored me, if it wasn’t for Nathan Greenland and Simon Gamha, I wouldn’t have managed to go through it but they helped me, they provided everything that I needed to go through this competition,’’ said Nyathie.
She plans to continue bodybuilding as she looks to get even better with time. Nyathie has been invited to the Arnold Classic Africa to be held in South Africa at the beginning of June.
“I hope to continue with bodybuilding, going on stage more, hopefully with time I will manage to build my body and make it look better than it is right now. I have been invited to Arnold Classic and I hope I can manage to get through it, I’ve seen people who are there, so I’ve to try and work hard,’’ she said.
On areas that she needs to work, Nyathie said while the judges felt that she was perfect on the day of the competition, she is looking to fine tune her legs.
“Apparently the judges thought I was perfect but I think my legs need more training, if I can work on the legs then I will be good to go.”
Shantel Bhatch, Selina Manuel and Kylie MacDonald are the other bodybuilders from Bulawayo who have previously won Ms Novice and gone on to excel in national and regional competitions. Nyathie said she has spent time to observe her predecessors so as to learn from their mistakes.
“I do see myself doing better, it took me time watching them go on stage, I learnt a lot, I saw some mistakes so I would really love to do better and see how far this is going to go.”
On how her family has reacted to her parading in front of strangers in a bikini, Nyathie said her family is full behind her.
“My family is actually more than happy, they are very happy that I am doing something that I love and I am managing to go through it, so they are really excited about it,’’ she said.
Nyathie is looking to continue amassing the medals and compete for fun because she appreciates how hard it is to earn a living from bodybuilding in Zimbabwe. -@Mdawini_29
