Hawke's Bay RSE worker wins national bodybuilding title
Meet Robert Wales the first Hawke's Bay RSE worker to win a national bodybuilding title.
"He's defintely the first from the Bay and Robert is more than likely the first RSE worker in the country to win one," Hawke's Bay's multiple national champion Don Poloa explained after the pair returned home from the weekend's Hamilton-hosted International Natural Bodybuilding Association's national champs.
While Solomon Islands Wales, 28, has been bodybuilding for four years and has been a placegetter at South Pacific Championship shows in the past the Hamilton show was his first national championship in New Zealand.
"Robert started training with me eight weeks ago at the FlaXrock Gym because he couldn't return home due to the Covid-19 pandemic and he needed something to do while waiting for more work," Poloa said.
"Robert won the open men's physique and overall class titles and returned home with the Mr NZ INBA title ... you can't get much better than that," Poloa explaned.
During his weight weeks of training Wales shed 11kgs to meet his 76kg target.
Former Hawke's Bay rugby league representative Poloa, 51, retained his masters 50plus title and finished second in the open men's classic division. A Silver Fern Farms Takapau plant butcher who weighed 132kgs in 2017, Poloa, lost 29kgs during his eight weeks of training to reach his 90kg target.
Poloa was up against three other lifters in his masters division and two others in the open men's classic division. Wales was one of six competitors chasing his physique title and two in his open men's class.
The pair were grateful to Stephen Hill Motors in Hastings for providing them with a car to travel to Hamilton in.
Don Poloa (left) and Robert Wales after their return to the Bay.
A 1996 and '97 Hawke's Bay Unicorns rugby league representative, Poloa, was a key member of the Tamatea premier team which completed a four-peat of Hawke's Bay premiership titles in 2002. He helped Tamatea win the title again in 2008 and in 2011 Poloa played for the Outkast Sports team which won the reserve grade comp.
Poloa was a bodybuilder before he took up rugby league and when he returned to bodybuilding in 2017 he did his first show since 1991.
