Forty-eight competitors from across the country struck poses onstage, twisting
their oiled torsos to display swelling back and abdominal muscles or extending
legs to show off sinewy calves. Some winced, others forced smiles.
More than 200 spectators - some wearing turbans, others three-piece suits -
crammed into the theater to watch the bodybuilders, who qualified for the event
by winning contests in their home provinces and represent the sport's national
appeal.
"The most popular sport after football (soccer) in Afghanistan is
bodybuilding," said Sayed Mohammed Payanda, secretary general of Afghanistan's
National Bodybuilding Federation. "Most people in Afghanistan, especially young
people, like bodybuilding very much."
It's so popular, in fact, that Arnold Schwarzenegger - the former bodybuilder
and movie star turned California governor - is among the most widely recognized
Western celebrities here.
Modern gyms and athletic clubs have popped up in many provinces in recent
years, Payanda said, adding that some Afghan bodybuilders have returned from
neighboring Pakistan and Iran since the hard-line Islamic Taliban regime was
ousted in 2001 and President Hamid Karzai subsequently took office.
But Afghanistan's bodybuilding community is still reeling from the loss of its
entire national team - 13 leading competitors - in a 1993 plane crash in the
country's north.
"We lost most of Afghanistan's national bodybuilders, but we are trying our
best to make a good team," he said.
Three Pakistani judges - all former bodybuilding champions in their home
country - chose Saturday's winners from a field of musclemen who ranged in age
from 22-34.
Mr Afghanistan and some of the other competitors will compete at coming
regional and international championships in South Korea and China later this
year, Payanda said.
Basheri, who has been lifting weights and bulking up for the past eight years,
started competing professionally in 2001 and represented Afghanistan at an
overseas contest in Bahrain last year.
Asked about his future hopes, the bodybuilder said: "I want my country to be
peaceful and quiet and independent. There has been war here for more than 25
years, so I hope we will have peace."
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