Dana Linn Bailey Scores Big Europa Super Show Victory!
By Steve Wennerstrom, IFBB Women's Historian
What promoters Ed and Bet
ty Pariso along with Scott Templeton have done with this annual contest extravaganza over the last few years is impressive, to say the least. Staged this year at the Dallas Hyatt Regency Convention Center and billed as 'A True Weekend Warriors Event', there was something for everyone who ventured onto the premises for the Europa Supershow on this August 16-17 weekend.
Specific to this article, the attention was keen as the Europa event was the last opportunity for competitors in the Women's Physique Division to qualify for the upcoming inaugural Ms. Olympia Physique Showdown. That said, a big field of 31 contestants gave it their best shot with the winner walking away with an automatic qualifying spot at the Ms. O, with others squeezing in by adding points to their existing totals. The bottom line here was that when everyone was headed home, the finalized field of the first Olympia Physique Showdown would be decided. In five more weeks we will all know who the first Ms.O Physique will be.
DANA DOES DALLAS
To Dana Linn Bailey it must seem like an eternity since she placed sixth at the 2006 NPC Lehigh Valley contest in her home state of Pennsylvania. She was a fledgling Figure competitor from Reading in those days. But before the year was over she had won the overall titles at the NPC Mountain Valley and NPC Pennsylvania State.
That was seven years ago and a lot has transpired in her competitive aspirations since then. Continuing to compete as a Figure competitor up to 2010, there was a 10th-place finish at the NPC Team Universe that year that may have played a pivotal role in her decision to enter the 2011 NPC Junior USA. It would be career changing. The event was the first-ever for the new Women's Physique Division and Bailey found herself winning the event and earning both her elevation to the pro level, but also a permanent label as the first winner of a Physique Division event. And the rest, as they say, is history. Her popularity grew quickly with her face and physique appearing all over the internet. She enjoys a multitude of loyal followers.
With the coming of 2012 and a full slate of pro women's division events, Bailey, along with 10 additional entrants, traveled to Phoenix for the Desert Muscle Classic. The contest was won by Karina Nascimento and DLB (as everyone was calling her by then) placed 4th. Nearly three months later Bailey entered the New York Pro Championships and in a field of 29 contestants she landed in a forgettable tie for 16th with 14 other competitors. It was back to the drawing board in refining and improving the physique that had earned her pro status.
Fast forward to 2013. Late in 2013, almost as if laying in wait, Bailey surfaced at the PBW Tampa Pro contest on the August 9-10 weekend. It turned out to be the largest-ever 
pro women's physique event. But more significantly, it was the ninth of the ten events available to qualify for the Olympia. To be sure, it was a gutsy move to wait this late in the season. But then again, DLB is a feisty character.
Bailey was given a good look-see by the judges and she landed second (scoring four points toward a possible qualification to the Ms. Olympia). Not surprisingly she followed up with an entry at this event realizing that if she was good enough to win she was on her way to Las Vegas, and even if she placed second, the points available would also qualify her. The points were quickly forgotten as she won this event by a two-point margin.
After pocketing her runner-up $1,000 payday last week, she welcomed the additional $2,000 for the winner's prize money here. Now it's onward to Sin City in what has been the most highly anticipated assemblage of Women’s Physique competitors since the division was inaugurated. Dana Linn Bailey probably wouldn't want it any other way.
Reville Revels in the Runner-up Spot
When Jillian Reville earned her pro status at the 2011 NPC Junior Nationals she was all in for a dance in the pro ranks. Full of stage presence that projects to the 25th row of an auditorium, and built like a thoroughbred racehorse, Reville jumped at the chance to enter the first-ever Pro Women's Physique Division contest on February 25th last year. There were 11 contestants at that event, and now 18 months later, three of those first entrants – Karina Nascimento in 1st, Dana Linn Bailey in 4th and Reville in 3rd will be reunited at the first Ms. Olympia Physique event.
Reville competed two more times in 2012 with a runner-up finish at the Europa Show of Champions in Orlando as her best placement of the year. Here, it was another runner-up placing that helped her vault into a qualifying spot at the Ms. O – this time finishing just two points behind Dana Linn Bailey. During the year Reville entered four additional contests in a quest that included a 5th place finish at the Europa Show of Champions, 2nd at the Mile High Pro, 6th at the PBW Tampa Pro, and 7th at the New York Pro.
Weighing 129 pounds for this event and showing a high level of conditioning, the only question that remains is whether she can avoid the distractions of preparing for the biggest contest of her life over the next month. But with the knowledge that she spent five years working at a trading desk on Wall Street, a contest prep – even if i
t is the Olympia – should seem like a walk in the park. Her take home pay was a tidy $1,000.
Karin Hobbs can say without reservation that she has seen it all and done it all as a competitor in the NPC/IFBB. She's a card-carrying veteran with over 20 years of stage experience, and with a contest resume that runs the gamut from Bodybuilding to Figure and now to Women’s Physique. A middleweight winner at the 1990 NPC Idaho (her first contest), Hobbs may be better remembered as Karin Kimura until she married recently.
Along the way she had good success in Figure, winning her class in the 2007 Emerald Cup and the 2009 NPC California. But it was in 2011 when she cemented her place in history by winning the overall and first-ever NPC National Women’s Physique title. Last year when she made her pro debut at the California Governor's Cup she also took home the victory. She added a runner-up finish at the Greater Gulf States and finished the year with a 7th-place finish at the LA Titan Grand Prix.
This year she stepped up her competitive schedule by competing five times including this Europa event, and her efforts were successful enough to earn her an entry in the upcoming Olympia. While in college at Boise State, Hobbs earned her Bachelor's degree in Health Promotion and now many years later she is continuing to display a glowing example of promoting a healthy look at the age of 46. Her third-place finish netted her $500.
One of the biggest surprises of the year in the Women's Physique Division had nothing to do with who won or lost a contest, but who finished dead last in one. Since winning the overall Physique title at the 2011 NPC Junior Nationals earning her pro status, Jennifer Robinson has been a stalwart supporter – by way of contest entries – in the pro division. With five contests logged in 2012 where she notched a pair of 5th's, a 4th, and a pair of 3rd's that included a third at this Tampa event last year, Robinson has been rock steady in her placings.
This year she slipped a tad with a 7th at the Optimum Classic and 6th at the Europa Show of Champions. But the lightning bolt struck at the Greater Gulf States when she plunged to 16th in a field of 16! That was on June 22nd in New Orleans. Just a few days short of two months later she was back among the top placers scoring a fourth-place finish here. A stunning turnaround, yes, but not surprising considering her sound structure and general overall shapes. Any questions as to her level of conditioning at this event meant little considering t
he variety of different conditioning levels within the top five. For Jennifer Robinson, her fourth-place finish has a much more settling ring to it than the 16th-place nightmare that is now a part of her past she'd rather forget.
Finishing fifth and picking up the last available point in the qualification series race was Nicole Ball. After a rocky 16th-place finish at the PBW Tampa Pro contest a week earlier, the always well-conditioned Canadian was back in the top placings which most observers have come to expect. A four-time competitor at the Ms.Olympia as a bodybuilder where she finished 8th in 2011 before making the switch to the Women’s Physique division, Ball has been a consistent top-five finisher in the new division with the exception of the Tampa event.
After winning the overall Canadian Championships in 2006, Ball made her pro debut winning the LW class of the 2007 Atlantic City Pro. She was also the inaugural winner of the Tampa Pro in 2008, and by any yardstick she could be considered a successful bodybuilder during the five years she competed in that division.
With continued tweaking of her overall muscular balance she should continue to be competitive in coming years as a Women’s Physique contestant. Ball's past Physique efforts include a 5th in the 2012 Toronto Super Show, and 3rd in the Wings of Strength earlier this year. Her first round call-out and subsequent fifth-place finish here should serve as an adequate motivation for next year.
The Best of the Rest – Outside the Top 5
6- Erika Blockman, USA 18
7- Loana Muttoni, Brazil 23
8- Beni Lopez, USA 24
9- Lyris Cappelle, Canada 26
10- Akane Nigro-Ismeal, USA 31
11- Roxie Beckles, USA 32
12- Joele Smith, USA 34
13- Candrea Judd-Adams, USA 37
14- Jill Rudison, USA 43
15- Ally Baker, USA 44
Competit
ors tied for 16th:
Myriam Bustamante, Mexico
Cinzia Clapp, USA
Jessica Gaines, USA
Karen Gatto, USA
Nekole Hamrick, USA
Marnie Holley, USA
Cea Anna Kerr, Canada
Zoa Linsey, Canada
Jayla McDermott, USA
Sheena Ohlig, USA
Antonia Perdakakis, USA
Ida Sefland, Denmark
Mikaila Soto, USA
Michelle Trapp, USA
Lindy Waid, USA
Stephanie Willes, USA
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