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The Best of the Best Awards for 2014 for the events WGC members were involved in ...

Best Male Gym Athlete

Doug Harrison.

Doug has competed in all of the events this year which allowed WGC to publish results. Throughout the year Doug has also constantly posted pictures of training protocols for rowing and weight training.

Being based in London, he has constantly travelled and competed at the highest level. He also presents himself as a future prospect in the world of Sport Science , while studying at Kings College and working on his degree.

Since 2011 and a new Gym Athlete and making an impact at UGA Doug has taken the extremes of performance and taken on equally those that have been established for a number of years, his slight frame has meant that he has equalled the performance and is now a regular in top five finishers.

Best Female Gym Athlete

Tracy Davies

Due to Tracy's constant improvement and now domination of Gym X Training it gives me absolute pleasue to announce this. Not only has Tracy been working constantly to improve her self, she has worked towards creating and testing the training protocols of the Gym X Training Training Programme, which has worked very well and proved beyond doubt that if you train with a fixed purpose it can hugely benefit your training and performance in events.

Tracy has also constantly been supporting where possible the facebook group for WGC with promoting as much as she can the sport which needs continued exposure in the social media in as many formats as possible.

Constantly looking to improve and keen to learn new practices, its an absolute pleasure to give the special recognition to probably the best female Gym Athlete since records began in 2006 in WGC.

Most Improved Gym Athlete

Steph Whitehead.

Since Steph became involved in Gym X Training she has been guided very expertly by winner of best Gym Athlete 2014 Doug Harrison. Now I know what some of you are thinking, that's a bit unfair, but look at the evidence, this year at UGA , Steph Whitehead was just 8 seconds way from becoming Advanced Gym Athlete status, and this year she was a clear winner at Intermediate in Hampshire XT.

Steph has shown a commitment to the sport and is very clear headed, calm and collected and has a clear vision of where she wants to be. At Intermediate she will be a force to be reckoned with and her time amongst the Advanced can't be that far away with a ton load of improvement on the way.

Best Performance

Robert Gottlieb

Such an easy award to give away to such an amazing journey that lead Robert to UGA this year in Rochdale. Robert flew over from New York to take part, literally giving himself a day to prepare from the jet lag, and brief stay at a hotel. Following the event was a whizz around the Trafford Centre and then flying back.

Lots of people have flown around the world to take part in sporting events. But this was a journey that must have started back in around 2006 when I first started talking to Robert who was fascinated with Gym X Training and the way it can get hold of you. Robert normally competes in Gym Triathlon events at his gym in New York which are quite popular, but he was drawn to compete at the UGA and so wins this award and gratitude to those he met and cheered him on.


Best Event

Best Event winner goes to the Team at Virgin Active Botley Road - West End - Southampton. For the Hampshire XT

Event organiser - Liam Florey

Event organiser - Ben Williams

Event Founder - Ty Whitlock

 

Outstanding Contribution to Gym X Training

John Shephred - Editor Ulta FIT magazine.

This award is given to John Shepherd, the editor of Ultra FIT magazine who over the years has been the backbone of any media publicity to the sport for Gym X Training. At every opportunity John has been extremely supportive of events and individuals who compete, including a cover front page issue to Cat Trentham.

The only exposure that Gym X Training seemed to get from the media was by those who knew about it. And John Shepherd knew about it because Ultra FIT designed the modern day Gym Sports programme. Its events in the 90's were way ahead of the current practise of tired and dull training practise which developed from the aerobic scene. What Ultra FIT did was take the whole concept of training in a gym and turn it on its head.

Before the dates of WGC existed Ultra FIT was the originator of Gym Sports. And without those early days, what we have now would not have existed.

So over the course of years, exposure has been given to -

Events ...

  • Ty - Whitlock - Hampshire XT
  • Stuart Leng - Gym Ironman
  • Ric Fenton - Fenton Gruller
  • Sean Blyth - World Gym Challenge

Features ...

  • Cat Trentham
  • Paul Morton Steve Mead
  • Liam Florey
  • Scott Parry
  • Gwen Fennell
  • Tracy Davies
  • Kiddy Gunnarsdottir
  • Wayne Thomas
  • Mark Yarnall
  • Doug Harrison
  • Richard Vint
  • Charlie Paton

Training ..

  • CrossFit
  • Gym X Training

It was a sad day when the last issue of Ultra FIT magazine was produced in 2014. It's content had always been informative and aimed directly at mainly the gym base individual who was very focused on training. John Shepherd and the contributors of Ultra FIT supported Gym Based Sports right to the last issue, which ironically had an an interview with David Stalker the from UK Active - I say ironically as if Gym Sports existed in gyms today, whereby each individual is actually training for a reason in performance , I'm pretty sure the impact of its programming would increase the end user experience and generate a fitter UK, measurable by results.

John Shepherd will have the eternal gratitude of all those who were given the publicity and exposure to showcase the events and individuals of the Gym X Training scene. No other magazine or organisation realised the potential that Gym Based Sports could offer to the gym member - they were ahead of the game when they started, right up to their last issue. It was the industry that fell behind the times, and the industry that is looking at masiive levels of inactivity, obesity and rising diabetes.

Thank you John Shepherd for all of your support