Raymond Jaravaza Sports Correspondent
VETERAN bodybuilder Simon Gama has changed the face of bodybuilding in Bulawayo since moving to the City of kings in 1999.

Gama’s romance with bodybuilding stretches back to 1994 when the then 13-year-old used to pass through a gym at Kadoma Sports Club and stare in awe at the muscular bodybuilders that trained there.

So awestruck was the youngster, who was a wrestling enthusiast, that he gathered enough courage to approach the owner of the gym to ask to train at the facility.

The rest, as the saying goes, is history.

“I approached the owner, a guy called Calvin Gobe, to train at his gym and although he was reluctant at first, he agreed on condition that I assisted by picking up equipment and weights left scattered around by people training in the gym,” said Gama.

“It was a good deal for me for as I couldn’t afford monthly gym fees, so I started training and lifting weights.”

Gama entered his first competition in 1995 – the Mr Mashonaland West – and won the juniors’ category, an accolade he retained for three consecutive years.

After completing secondary school, Gama then moved to Bulawayo and did not shy away from stiff competition in the city. He challenged for the Mr Bulawayo Juniors’ title and emerged second runner-up in 1999 as well as in 2000.

In 2001 Gama took his bodybuilding career a notch up by winning Mr Bulawayo. Two years later, he was fourth in the Mr Zimbabwe bodybuilding pageant.

At the inaugural Mr Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) in 2004, Gama ensured the first title remained in the City of Kings by scooping the top prize.

He decided to take his trailblazing career across the Limpopo River to South Africa by entering the Mr Cape Town Physic where he came out sixth in 2008.

In what was supposed to be a defining moment in his illustrious career, Gama was invited to represent Southern Africa in the Mr Universe World Natural Muscle Mania in Miami, Florida in the United States of America in 2009, but that dream was shattered when the US Embassy in Harare denied the bodybuilder an entry visa.

Gama had passed urinalysis tests, but the US Embassy still would not grant him a visa.

“Up to this day, I still don’t understand why the US Embassy denied me a visa. It was supposed to be the highlight of my career representing the whole region at an international competition,” said Gama, showing Chronicle Sport an article carried by this publication in 2009 when news broke out that he would not travel to the US.

In 2014, a new training establishment – Bodyworks Gym – was opened and owner Nathan Greenland tasked Gama and three other trainers to introduce four academies, bodybuilding, taekwondo, boxing and fitness.

Gama heads the bodybuilding academy and his first task was to form a championship winning team.

In 2015, three of his protégés Brian Samudombe and Shantel Greenland (nee Batch) scooped the Mr and Miss Novice respectively. Michelle Matsito was the first runner-up to Greenland.

The success of the bodybuilding academy saw more bodybuilders knocking on the doors of Bodyworks Gym at the Parkade Centre to join Gama’s team and now boasts of reigning Mr Bulawayo Lovemore Munyamana, Mr ZRP National Givemore Marufu, as well as Lazarus Shereni.

“Our immediate target is to keep the Clarion Insurance Mr and Ms ZITF in Bulawayo when Marufu, Shereni, Munyamana and Shantel take to the stage at Cloud Nine nightclub on Saturday,” said Gama.

In January, 17-year-old Selina Manuel, a Lower Sixth student at Petra High School, surprised Gama by requesting to be part of his team, and being a trainer with an eye for scouting champions, he did not think twice about accepting her into his bodybuilding academy.

Three months of sweat and hard work in the gym paid off for the girl and trainer when Manuel scooped the 2016 Ms Novice held in Harare last month.

Gama wrote a piece of history for himself when his athletes kept the Ms Novice title in Bulawayo for two years in a row.

Simon Gama’s accolades

1995 -1997: Mr Mashonaland West (Juniors)

1999 – 2001: Mr Bulawayo (Juniors)

2001: Mr Bulawayo 2nd Runner Up (Juniors)

2002: Mr Zim 4th Place (Juniors)

2001: Mr Bulawayo

2013: Mr Zim 4th Place

2013: Mr Bulawayo

2004: Mr ZITF

2008: Mr Cape Town Physic 6th Place

2008: Mr Zim Ironman 3rd Runner Up

2009: Mr Cape Town Physic 4th Place

2014: Mr Ironman Dubai 10th Place

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