Female body builder from Merida vies for ‘Mr. Olympia’ crown

Eli Fernández. Photo: Facebook

For the third consecutive year, female body builder Eli Fernández has qualified to compete in September’s Mr. Olympia contest.

The 28-year-old Merida athlete, a fitness coach, heads to Las Vegas after victory at the IFBB Indy Pro 2019. She will compete in a women’s bikini category, as she did in Indianapolis.

In that contest, Fernández beat U.S. rivals Hannah Ranfranz and Jessica Palmer, who finished second and third, respectively.

Chihuahuan Noel Adame took first place in the mens category, in his division.

For the Yucatecan, victory came after learning from a setback.

“In previous years I was among the last, but I never gave up, on the contrary, at that moment it was when I began to demand much more and here are the good results,” Fernández wrote on social media minutes after winning the international competition. “It was worth so much work, so many tears, so much sacrifice.”

This is the second win of the year for Fernández. In February she won first place in the Colombia Classic 2019 Sheru Championship, held in Medellin, where she surprised onlookers to beat an odds-on favorite, Romina Basualdo of Argentina.

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