Champion Masterton bodybuilder Deon Smith has returned exhausted but bearing laurels after a transtasman world contest bid that caps eight months of competition training and crash dieting.
Smith, 42, who trains at Wai Weight Gymnasium in Masterton, said he was more than satisfied with his sixth placing in the 85 to 90kg Superbodies class at the WFF World Championships Bodybuilding Championships, which was held at the Twin Towns Services Club in Tweed Heads, NSW, this month.
He had weighed in at 88.5kg for the contest "against some of the best in the world" and the outing was the culmination of a campaign that netted him a series of Masters class gold medals at contests throughout New Zealand this year.
"I made it to the worlds and that was my goal. Now it's over - done - and I'm glad it's finished. I've been to four competitions since May this year and I'm exhausted. Now it's time to rest."
Smith, who works as a leading hand at Breadcraft bakery and as a personal trainer, said he and campaign manager and wife Robyn Omundsen Smith were planning on shifting to Australia in a year or two and he was retiring from competing in New Zealand.
