Between 2013 and 2022 the Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation of Uzbekistan held 24 open championships in the country's provinces whose pages survive in its archive — from Nukus in the west to Andijan in the east. The earliest is dated 16 June 2013: the fifth open championship of the city of Jizzakh. After the qualifying round five weight categories were formed with 23 competitors in total, and they came from five cities — Tashkent, Samarkand, Jizzakh, Andijan and Bukhara. Those 24 exclude tournaments in the capital, international starts and show events: only provincial championships and championships of the Republic of Karakalpakstan are counted.
Before 2013 this sport had one address: Tashkent
The early lines of the archive are almost entirely from the capital: the Sparta gym of 1987, the Tashkent open championship of 1989, the Mister Tashkent and Mister Uzbekistan series running from 1992. The first exception is dated 30 June 1998 — the Mister Tashkent — Navoi show tournament. The geography was already wider than the capital, but it did not become a regular journey.
Regularity began fifteen years later. The 5th open championship of the city of Jizzakh on 16 June 2013 gathered athletes from five cities at once: Mikhail Yafizov won the under-60 kg category, Khakimbek Boboev the under-65 kg. The number five repeated itself three times that day: the fifth championship, five weight categories, five cities.
2017: a season that reads like a map of the country
Four years later a single season ran through five provinces and closed in the capital:
| 26 March 2017 | Namangan | Open championship of Namangan province |
| 2 July 2017 | Fergana | Open championship of Fergana province |
| 30 July 2017 | Jizzakh | Open championship of Jizzakh province |
| 6 August 2017 | Andijan | Open championship of Andijan province |
| 22 October 2017 | Bukhara | First open championship of Bukhara |
| 17 November 2017 | Tashkent | Open championship of Uzbekistan |
Each of these six tournaments carries thirty photographs in the archive: the photo folders of these years survive better than the rest. They also show what the table does not. On the Bukhara stage, in men's sports physique over 175 cm, Alexey Yuldashev of Tashkent came first and Vadim Abbasov of Turkmenistan finished fifth: a provincial championship was already receiving neighbours from across the border.
2018: Nukus and Urgench raise a stage for the first time
The west of the country got its stage in 2018. On 11 March Nukus hosted the first open championship of Karakalpakstan: Ilkham Mirzamuratov of Nukus won the junior under-75 kg category, while third and fourth in the junior over-75 kg category went to Alpamis Allambergenov and Zafar Shukurullaev, also from Nukus.
On 24 June of the same year Khorezm province held its first open championship, with the stage set up in Urgench. Javokhir Jabbarov of Khorezm won athletic physique up to 180 cm, Bakhram Yakubov of Urgench the category over 180 cm, and in junior bodybuilding up to 75 kg the first two places went to athletes from Beruniy in Karakalpakstan. Two neighbouring regions had begun travelling to each other.
A stage goes up in a day; a judge takes years
On 7 March 2016 the federation published its procedure for certifying judges: theory first, then the candidate scores a qualifying round unofficially alongside the working panel, and only if his scores match those of the official judges is he admitted to the final.
In April of that year the federation named those who had passed, and all six came from the provinces: Alina Yafizova, Dierbek Matkarimov and Sardorbek Tukhtarov from Andijan; Farkhod Uralov, Nodir Yusupov and Bunyod Normatov from Jizzakh. The names then appear in the protocols themselves. Nineteen provincial protocols from 2016 to 2022 in the archive list the panel: Farkhod Uralov stands in ten of them, Dierbek Matkarimov in four, Sardorbek Tukhtarov in three. And Bakhtier Khaydarov stands as judge number one in all nineteen, from Namangan in 2016 to Andijan in 2022.
A champion can grow up anywhere
One example is Umar from the Kitab district of Kashkadarya province: in 2019 in Samarkand he became absolute champion in the 75 kg weight category. He entered the gym at twenty and took six years to reach the title; for fifteen years he has had one coach, Bekzod Shukurov. On the same Samarkand stage in 2019, Jakhongir Juraev came first in the 85 kg category. A note on sources: Umar's surname and the spelling of his coach's surname are marked in the federation's volume as awaiting confirmation; the archive holds a single Samarkand page for 2019 — the open championship of Samarkand province of 11 August 2019.
The second example can be read straight from the protocols. Islomjon Ergashev of Jizzakh won the junior under-70 kg category in Namangan (26 March 2017), the same category in Fergana (2 July) and the under-75 kg category in Andijan (6 August); in Namangan he also took the senior under-70 kg category the same day. Five years later, on 13 March 2022, at the final of the open Golden Valley championship in Andijan, he won the absolute athletic physique category. For him the provincial tournaments were not a shop window but a staircase.
2019–2022: provinces combine into joint championships
From 2019 a new format appears — one stage for several provinces at once, standing in the calendar alongside single-province championships. The chronicle in the 2026 monograph gives the years 2020 to 2022 a line of its own: development of regional tournaments, competitions held in the provinces, wider participation by women.
| 30 March 2019 | Andijan | Namangan, Fergana and Andijan provinces |
| 21 April 2019 | Nukus | Khorezm province and the Republic of Karakalpakstan |
| 28 April 2019 | Akkurgan | Tashkent province |
| 29 March 2020 | Namangan | Namangan, Fergana and Andijan provinces |
| 14 March 2021 | Navoi | Navoi province |
| 28 March 2021 | Namangan | Fergana Valley |
| 4 April 2021 | Samarkand | Samarkand, Jizzakh, Kashkadarya and Surkhandarya |
| 13 March 2022 | Andijan | Namangan, Fergana and Andijan provinces |
One caveat on dates: on the archive page for the 2019 Andijan championship the protocol heading reads 31 March while the record itself is dated 30 March; we show the discrepancy rather than hide it. Besides the provincial capitals, the protocols name Kokand, Gulistan, Gijduvan, Angren, Yangiyul, Chirchik, Zangiota, Kattakurgan, Karshi, Kitab, Olot, Mangit and Beruniy.
What the provinces still lack
An honest answer beats a flattering one. The 2026 monograph "The Development of Bodybuilding in Uzbekistan" names the weak points directly: uneven development of infrastructure in the regions and a limited number of professional coaches there. The country has more than 53 large fitness facilities, over 80 % of them in the capital. Gym provision in Tashkent is about 19.3 sq m per 1,000 people; in Samarkand it is 6.5.
The women's line is distributed just as unevenly: the monograph names women's tournaments in three cities — Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara. There has been movement: the share of certified female coaches grew from 15 % in 2016 to 35 % in 2026. The stage reached the provinces before the infrastructure did.
Where to verify every date in this article
Every date, city and surname above comes from the open archive of the Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation of Uzbekistan: 137 tournament pages from 1987 to 2025, carrying 2,579 photographs. Across the whole archive, including personal pages, calendars and documents, there are 2,623 photographs and 140 documents: rules and regulations, entry forms, season calendars and championship protocols by year. The federation's printed volume counts its photo archive differently — 2,904 frames; the figures here are those of the open archive on uzfbf.pro. If you have kept photographs of a provincial tournament, on 11 June 2025 the federation publicly asked people to send in everything that preserves the memory of this sport. That request still stands.
Where to train if you are reading this from a province
The PROFORM DINAMO club operates in Tashkent. Its founder Timur Sabirov is president of the Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation of Uzbekistan: in 2006 he took the stage for the first time and won the under-90 kg category, and he became absolute champion of Uzbekistan at nineteen. The PROFORM name has stood in the federation's archive since 2013: on 12 April 2013 Flex Wheeler's masterclass was held in the PROFORM gym. And in 2025 the PROFORM CLASSIC SPORTS FESTIVAL — GENERATION IRON SHOW UZFBF was held outside the capital: 24–25 May, Chirchik.
Club address: Mirzo Ulugbek Avenue 8a, Tashkent. The gym is open around the clock and a club tour is free. Phone: +998 94 045 54 48.