By Andrew Coakley

FN Sports Editor

The bodybuilding husband and wife team of Desmond and Charnice Bain have made a name for themselves on the bodybuilding stage.

They have become known as the "Bain team," since winning last year's Northern Bahamas Bodybuilding Cha-mpionships.

The "Bain team" have done it again, this time in powerlifting.

Yes, powerlifting!

Desmond and Charnice dominated the bench press competition, which was staged by the Grand Bahama Powerlifting Association on Saturday past.

The two Bains powered their way to claim the championship titles for the overall men and overall ladies' championships.

And they both did it wearing jeans!

Desmond won the men's title with a lift of 400lb, while Charnice won the ladies' title with an overall lift of.

"I really entered the competition to make up the numbers and to test my strength," said Desmond, in an interview with The Freeport News.

"Actually, I knew that my bench was strong and so I knew I had a good chance of powering through to get that one lift I needed to win."

Desmond began his lift with 300 lb, moved up to 350 on the second lift and finished off his three lifts with 400 lb.

Needless to say it was a bit distrubing for the powerlifting competitors to have a bodybuilder come onto their turf and walk away with the top prize. That would be like Bernard "Sphinx" Rolle getting onto a bodybuilding stage and beating Desmond.

But for the record, "Sphinx" did not compete in Saturday's bench-off because he's apparently saving his strength and lifts for the Powerlifting Nationals, set to take place here in Grand Bahama in April.

Some are suggesting that if "Sphinx" had competed, Desmond would have had his hands full in terms of competition.

Be that as it may, right now Desmond has his hands full with a championship trophy.

"I know that come next year I will have to defend my title in the bench press, but that's okay, because I'll be ready."

Desmond admits that preparing for the bench press did have some affect on his physique as a bodybuilder, because for a while he had to focus primarily on building his strength in the bench press.

That also meant not being able to work shoulders as much as he wanted to because he had to preserve that muscle part for last Saturday's competition.

"But I had not stopped training since last year's Bodybuilding Nationals," said Desmond.

"But now that the bench press competition is over, I'm back in the gym now working on my physique and getting ready for the Northern Bahamas Bodybuilding Champion-ship."

Both Desmond and Charnice are defending champions of the Northern Bahamas Bodybuilding Championship.

"I know that defending that championship is a big deal for me, so I'm putting in the hours preparing to defend my title," Desmond added.

"Last year when I competed at the Nationals, Jay Darling was really the guy in my division who I had to contend with, but with him turning pro, that means he won't be there this year, so I'm really going all out to be in the best shape I can be, not just for the Northern Bahamas, but for the Nationals."

Desmond says that he's hoping to come in bigger and even more ripped this year than he was last year at the Bodybuilding Nationals. And preparing for the bench press competition has helped him in terms of putting on that mass in his chest that he will need.

So, already, he's ahead of the game.