First Show, First Overall: Felix Murruy Shum Wins Big on the NABBA South Africa Stage

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Felix Murruy Shum had never competed before. He walked into the NABBA South Africa show, entered the novice lineup, and won it. He kept winning and By the end of the night, he was the Men's Overall Champion.




His coach, Niël Hamman, watched from the sidelines. But this particular first-timer was something different.




The phrase that kept coming up in the aftermath was "conditioning." Felix was not the biggest man on stage. He did not need to be.

What he brought was a level of definition—the kind that separates competitors in the final callouts. Sliced and diced. Every muscle group visible, every line sharp. In NABBA, where conditioning is often the deciding factor, that kind of package turns heads.





Elroy Salie, the South African bodybuilding figure and interviewer, caught up with Hamman immediately after the win. Salie introduced him plainly:

 "This man won the men's overall title. His first ever show he ever did. He did the novice lineup which is for first-timers. He won that. He did a few other lineups. This man just keeps placing first. Unstoppable today."



Asked about his plan for next year, Felix was measured. No rush. No immediate talk of bigger stages.

"We're just going to take a big off-season and work to bring up the things that need to be brought up," Training and the dieting. Figuring out which things to adjust to get the results I want. So just ticking boxes day in and day out. It's not sexy, You should do that over a whole year and you'll grow."



What stood out most in the interview was not the win, but how Felix talked about the sport itself.

"I think win or lose, I'll be in the gym on Monday. And Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday. Because that's the game I love. It's not about the winning or the losing. It's about the people you meet along the way, the love for the game and just progressing."

That sentiment is easy to say after a win. It is harder to mean. But Murray said it with the same flat certainty he brought to the question about his off-season plan—no performance, no embellishment. Just a statement of fact.



Niël Hamman's presence in the corner was not incidental. Based in Stellenbosch, he has been competing and coaching in South African bodybuilding for over a decade. He earned his IBFF Pro card in 2023 after eleven years of competition, and has built a coaching practice around simple, executable plans and consistent accountability.

That philosophy aligns with what Felix described in the interview: incremental progress, patient adjustment, trust in the process.