UltraFit 2001
May 12-13 Stratford-On-Avon

Report by Will Whitmore, DB Max (also check out Hywel's and Ade's reports)

All over for another year then. So what were the lasting impressions from this year's competition? A fourth men's title for Mr. Davis and a sixth men's team title for Club Elmley. A great event, well organised to run to time, with good humoured commentary by Terry O'Neill and well needed massage facilities.

This is the third year running I have attended the Sunday team event and the Reading gang and me had a great day. But a couple of things happened this year that stirred me to put pen to paper. Although I've suffered at the hands of the ab judges in both my individual appearances at this competition, I've no wish to gripe about the exercise or the judging (though Hywel's wry smile as he finished his 60 reps in Sunday's final spoke volumes). The Ultra-Fit is notoriously strict - everyone knows it and that's what we expect. So what was going on this Sunday..?! It seemed to
start in the men's finals when we saw Lane A doing hip flexors that weren't full reps and press ups without locking the arms - both being counted. Conversely, Lane B competitors were enduring severely strict judging of the press-ups, with reps that certainly looked good enough to us being
discounted. Seemed extremely harsh on at least two of the top ten. So, that was the first surprising
inconsistency.....however, worse was to follow in the team events. This time it was the box step-ups. There were guys in Lane B getting away with very poor reps. Bent legs and no attempt to straighten up on top of the box - still getting counted! The judge seemed preoccupied with his counter rather
than exercise execution. We even noticed another judge pointing this out at one point. This is particularly annoying for the teams, including ours, who had already completed the event properly. If you take a lot of time drumming the importance of good form into your team, this sort of lapse
becomes frustrating - especially when it's the first timers in your team pointing out the bad technique. If they can see it why can't the judges...?

The contrast in Lane B between the judging of the abs and the box step-ups was huge. The notorious 'Ab Woman' is strict beyond belief while next to her people are getting away with very sloppy technique. Surely we are warranted in expecting consistency in this, the gold standard in cross-training competitions. I'm never going to win the Ultra-Fit - I'm quite happy to help pay for Hywel's summer
holiday every year - but we all deserve the competition to be judged fairly and consistently.

Well, I guess this might get me called up before the FA for bringing the game into disrepute. So I'll finish by saying that in general it was a top weekend and we were chuffed to bits with our team performance. I'm relatively new to this game so I might be repeating stuff that's been said in the past, but I just thought there was a point to be made. There are some good competitions around now - the BoxFit competition was judged superbly earlier this year and the Ultra-Fit might do well to take a leaf out of the books of other cross-training challenges, in order for it to remain the prestigious main event that it is.

Also, on a personal note I reckon they should make the Individual Ultra-Fit just 8 disciplines - take out the abs and the treadmill....and perhaps reduce the weight on the bench press....

Will Whitmore & DB Max