Jeff Schucroft to lift stature of body building

Richard Dwight

BODY BUILDING: The sport of body building and fitness far from progressing was found to be retrogressing, brought about mainly by the governing body being riddled with controversy and conflict.

This certainly didn’t augur well for the sport and in order to arrest its downward trend, the Minister of Sports and Public Recreation, Gamini Lokuge, for the good of, and in the name and cause of body building, dissolved the earlier elected adminstration of the Sri Lanka Body Building and Fitness Federation (SLBBFF) and appointed an Interim Committee in August with Jeff Schucroft as Chairman.

Schucroft, a former body building champion and an administrator of no mean repute, is charged with the responsibility of unifying the various factions by bringing them together and to, so ensure that body building here forges ahead.

With his proven ability and wielding fair amount of influence amongst body building circles here and abroad, Schucroft, was spot on into action from the word go.

He lost little or no time, sans a selection committee that has yet to be formed - Schucroft going on the performance of the Mr. Sri Lanka contest held in February this year, picked a four-member team with the concurrence of the Sports Ministry to represent Sri Lanka at the Asian Championships held in the first week of September at Shanghai, China.

It was most encouraging and gratifying to learn that Sisira Kumara was placed fourth at the China, Asian Championship - incidentally this is the first time that a Sri Lankan was placed after 26 years at an international event.

The Chairman of the IC-SLBBFF, Schucroft was more than pleased with the performance in China and, with much enthusiasm held a briefing for media personnel on Friday at the 80 Club.

The sole purpose of the briefing was to acquaint the members of the media with the body builders and also spell out his aims and plans for the sport in the future. But the briefing was marred to an extent in an unsatisfactory manner, when two committee members were engaged in a vituperative harangue, over a letter sent by a lifter on his being left out on the trip to China - to the Minister.

An embarrassed Schucroft explained that they had good reasons on the grounds of discipline to leave out the lifter, with an inquiry to follow and also to take punitive action against the two offending committee members for their disorderly conduct.

Notwithstanding this minor reverse, Schucroft in a spirit of its ‘deed that matter and not words’ let it be known that his thrust to bolster body building in the immediate future would be the holding of the Mr. Novices contest at the BMICH on October 13 along with the Mr. Classic competition which is approved by the Asian Body Building Federation.

This would be followed by the Mr. Sri Lanka Championship that takes place on December 28 and 29 at the BMICH.

There will, Schucroft, revealed of Sri Lanka being given the opportunity of staging the Asian Championships next year with around 350 competitors from 30 countries taking part.

In this regard he will discuss it with the Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge and have as well an appointment with President Mahinda Rajapaksa to solicit the support of the Government to hold the event in the country.

Schucroft, for the good of the sport has established rapport with the world’s body building officials in Raffel Santogjee (Spain) President of the International Body Building Federation, Augustine Lee in-charge of coaching based in Singapore, Rajiv Pai a nutritional specialist in Dubai and yet others.

With the dedicated Schucroft, committed as he is for the furtherance of Body Building, there’s every reason to believe that sport will make headway.