Jamaican fitness athlete Deidre Lewis has rebounded from a two-year anti-doping suspension, to win her Pro Card following an outstanding showing at the Mr and Miss America IFBB Cup in Lima, Peru, last weekend.
During the competition that ran from April 1-2, Lewis won the Bikini Senior Up to 160cm Class over Ambar Canas of Venezuela, Aminta Jeanette Lopez Ramirez of El Salvador, Vivian Isabel Buella Guevara of Peru, Pamela Sosa of Guatemala, Alejandra Milargros Chang Yui of Peru and Helen Orellana of Chile.
She also won the Overall Bikini Fitness title over Costa Rica’s Darla Gomez Bolanos and El Salvador’s Aminta Jeanette Lopez Ramirez.
The success means that Lewis would finally earn her Pro Card.
“I am very happy with my success. It has been long overdue,” an elated Lewis told Sportsmax.TV after returning home earlier this week.
“I was delayed but never denied. Delayed with entering shows previously and coming very close to earning the card and didn’t get it and second, the suspension for Zeranol, which didn’t give me any advantage and is a naturally occurring substance that comes from food and I had to stay away from the stage,” she said.
“So, I am here once my suspension was up I hit the ground running because I just wanted to get back on the stage.”
She explained that during her time off, she worked to get her body in peak condition with the goal of earning her Pro Card.
“I started operating like a pro. I trained like a professional and now I am a professional,” she said.
“I won my height class first and I was so overwhelmed because it was a really tight show. It was really great and I had the muscles that they were looking for on the day so I am very happy with this win.”
Lewis, who intends to make her professional debut at the Roger Boyce Classic in Barbados from June 1-4 depending on if she can get sponsored, said the success has helped put her mind at ease and boosted her self-belief.
“It has made me content, very content and happy. Actually, happy is an understatement. I am overwhelmed, elated because I have waited so long to come back to the stage it, it hurt my spirit to be away from the stage so I am happy I could have come back and come back with a bang,” she said.
“I am more confident in my abilities now. I have changed my mindset upon entering the competition because before I was more nervous, doubting my abilities. I have also revamped how I approach competition. It is important to have confidence on the stage and that oozed out of me on the stage and that was why I was triumphant.”
She reveals, however, that she remains rankled by the suspension that robbed her of two years in the sport.
“I am still not over it, 100 per cent,” she said.
“I am just disheartened that the substance (Zeranol), it was a minute amount, it is a naturally occurring substance. The expert said that this was not something that I took and I still had to serve a suspension for that just because I simply could not tell them where it came from,” she said while suggesting that changes need to be made to some of the rules governing doping.
“I think they need to change those rules in cases like these when it was not something I took deliberately. I am still disheartened by it but I am looking forward from all of it.”