Before he arrived in Sydney in 2008, Santosh Kumar Shrestha had been to a gym for a month, little less than a month to be accurate. Once here, he did what most immigrants do after they emigrate to a developed country – double shifts, extra extra hours, hanker after every penny that could be saved and then, after all that, attend classes.
Fast forward to March 2015, the 33 year old gym addict from a small country town in Nepal has stunned fitness gurus in Australia by winning this year’s International Natural Bodybuilding Association’s (INBA) Rookie of the Year Award.
He beat 20 seasoned fitness enthusiasts from across Australia all of whom were under 25, Santosh told southasia.com.au. “People did not believe me when I yelled out ‘1982’ as my birth year during urine test. They thought I was saying ‘1992’,” he said. The event being a natural bodybuilding competition, participants are required to undergo a rigorous urine test. A participant can be fined $5,000 and disqualified for life if any trace of performance-enhancing drug is detected in the urine.
INBA’s website describes the Nepali national as ‘a very happy and fit man’. Happy he certainly is after he successfully stormed the Melbourne bodybuilding event on 8 March. “I felt so proud to be standing there among top local bodybuilders. I was happy that I could represent my country, Nepal. I looked around and could not see one from Nepal or for that matter from any other South Asian countries,” the happy and fit man said. He had quietly hoped that he would be at least one of top five but ‘I was so nervous when my name was not called even when it got up to number two.” Then they announced his name as the winner of the Rookie of the Year award and he could not believe his ears.
As the winner of the Rookie of the Year Award, Santosh is now eligible to participate in an upcoming qualifying competition for the 2015 INBA World Championships to be held in Dubai on 14 June 2015. According to INBA, the event is expected to heighten ‘natural bodybuilding and modelling from obscurity to centre stage in the world of fitness and health’.
As only top three in the qualifying competition will be allowed to participate in the Dubai World Championship, it’s all war zone for Santosh from here on. Because his ultimate goal now is to participate in the world event. “For now, my aim is to qualify so that I can participate in the World Championship,” Santosh said.
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