Francine Sablan, Ashley Kaltwasser and Babette Mulford were standouts in their respective divisions in July in earning NPC Athlete of the Month honors for the month.
Sablan won the Figure Overall title at the USA Championships while Kaltwasser won the Overall in Bikini at Team Universe. Mulford won her class and an IFBB Pro card at Fitness Nationals.
FIGURE: Francine Sablan
Accomplishment: USA Overall and Class B Winner
Age 28
Height 5’2
Weight 113
Residence San Diego, California
Contest history/highlights 2012: California State Championships 1st Class B and Overall; 2011: LA Championships 1st Class C and Overall; USA Championships 6th Class C; 2010: San Diego Championships 1st Class C and Overall; Border States 1st Class C; Excalibur 1st Class C
PHYSICAL PASSION “I’m originally from Saipan – a tiny island in the Pacific right next to Guamm. I grew up there and moved to the US in middle school. My mom did a Ms. Universe pageant in Australia, so she gets a part of it – but this whole fitness wold is totally outside of our culture. I’m still not sure my family really understands, but now they are starting to see how passionate I am about it.
GIVE IT A GO “I played volleyball in middle school and in was on the cheer squad all through high school. After high school I tried to find another outlet, so I joined gym and learned a little lieelt bit about weightlifting. People started asking me if I ever competed, so I went to check out a show – the 2009 Border States. I found out about figure and decided to give it a go the following year.”
I LIKE TO TRAIN “I really just like to train, so I felt like figure would be a good fit for me. I’m a little modest so I guess you could say so bikini didn’t really seem to fit my personality. I just liked the look of figure.”
PUSH IT “I pretty much train bodybuilder style. I focus on different muscle groups each day of the week, I like to train heavy. What I really like about it is being able to see the progression, challenge yourself and see how much weight you can really push.”
DO THE UNEXPECTED “It was a total surprise. Going into the USAs I feel like was I was able to use the time to put on some good muscle, just mature a little bit, refine my posing and get the whole package polished. I felt really confident. I went into the show hoping to do my best but did not expecting to take overall”.
QUOTABLE “Champions keep playing until they get it right.”
