Svetlana Kochkina - fitness babe. Sexy. Champion of the world.

The 2006 European Women's Bodybuilding, Fitness & Body Fitness and Men's Fitness Championships were held in the historic town of Viterbo, Italy, May 26-29. The event drew 128 athletes from 26 countries.

Italian competitor Claudia Partenza displayed an impressive balanced physique en route to winning the women's overall bodybuilding title, and 2005 World champion Svetlana Kochkina from Russia dominated her field, taking the fitness overall crown. Norwegian sensation Monika Saur Hoyer was the body fitness overall champion, and exhibiting a highly entertaining and energetic routine, Polish competitor Tomasz Pietras won the men's fitness title.

With about 200 athletes from over 40 countries competing, there was a bounty of talent on display from countries as diverse as Serbia-Montenegro, Japan, New Zealand, Guam and Greece.

There were a lot of returning athletes as well as a bevvy of new faces and this year countries aside from the host country were allowed to bring a "B" team and Russia and the Czech Republic both took advantage of the new ruling. In Russia's case it may have helped the most as their "B" team in the fitness short class took two top five placings including the class title to Svletlana Kochkina. Russia ended up 2nd in the team rankings behind Slovakia and just ahead of Germany.

As in the states, body fitness (figure) has grown and the classes were huge while fitness has declined a bit. The caliber of athletes hasn't changed as much though at the Worlds, with the class winners being quite impressive and a bit more artistic in their performances than at American shows.

As mentioned before, Svetlana Kochkina won the short fitness and the tall class was won by Germany's Regiana Da Silva. Oksana Grishina took 2nd in the short ahead of Germany's Rosanna Muller. Muller actually was performing with an injury and has one of the tightest physiques in the class.

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