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23rd Sept 1963 - 1st November 1997
Born in
At 5ft 9” he competed at 230lbs/105kg and was a multi faceted athlete having competed in rugby, soccer, judo and swimming.
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Competing in the IFBB Ironman in California, USA in 1997 [18th]


With Shane Stratton and Sonny Schmidt in Melbourne 1997

With Shane Stratton and Graeme Lancefield in Melbourne 1996

Onstage

BJ Johns with Shane Stratton at the Australasia in

A quote from BJ:
“I was a naturally thin kid at the age of 16-17 years, partly because I was so active with other sports and I was too busy to eat. I played rugby (New Zealand's national sport) for the under 19s catholic team, and because I was so thin, I wanted to put on weight - the main reason was to be the same weight of the other team members, as at times, I was the butt of skinny jokes...... I started training at a gym in town after my father let me stay up late on a school night to watch "Pumping Iron". Little did dad know, that from that night on my life would never be the same.... I actually started training purely to be a bodybuilder. I've always been a competitive person, so it made sense to me that competing would set the goal needed to improve. It has been a long hard road, as in those days, I was the only kid training and the only one interested in competing. There was no knowledge back then, and I couldn't even ask anyone for tips or information..... I did my first competition because the people in the gym encouraged me. I didn't really know what to expect - I turned up with long hair, beads around my neck, and hairy legs & armpits”