Call to Arms : County fair: Eighty men and women test their strength in a regional arm-wrestling competition.

They clasped hands and the battle began. Joanna Ramirez fought her opponent, frowning beneath her black cowboy hat during her third round of Saturday’s arm-wrestling competition at the Ventura County Fair.

But in a matter of seconds, the 28-year-old mother of two was defeated by Candace Leith, reigning women’s world lightweight arm-wrestling champion.

“I want to get her,” Ramirez later said of Leith. “I used to arm wrestle in junior high school with all the boys and whip them all.”

Eighty men and women participated in the regional competition sponsored by the World Professional Arm-Wrestling Assn.

The six winners will go to Albuquerque, N.M., on Sept. 22 to compete against other contestants chosen over the year in fair and shopping mall competitions throughout the United States, said Steve Simons, association president.

The shot at the big time attracted past winners as well as novice competitors.

For Ramirez, who arm wrestles relatives at home, Saturday was her first real arm-wrestling competition.

Ramirez said her supervisor at Egg City in Moorpark, where she works as a security guard, encouraged her to compete.

The two of them arm wrestle each other when work is slow, she said.

World Lightweight Champion Leith, 29, has entered the fair competition for the past four years, and knows that technique is as important as strength.

It is especially important to be fast on the start, said Leith, who is 5 feet, 7 inches tall.

Leith, who at 145 pounds is on the borderline between two weight divisions, won both women’s lightweight and open categories.

Winners in the men’s competitions were Doug Sailors of Chino in the featherweight division, less than 144 pounds; Scott Firth of Camarillo, lightweight, 145 to 169 pounds; Jere Ayers of Ventura, middleweight, 170 to 193 pounds; Bill Leslie of Port Hueneme, light-heavyweight, 194 to 219 pounds; and Mike Leslie, heavyweight, more than 220 pounds, according to association officials. Each contestant received three chances to compete. Those who reached the finals squared off in a single-elimination contest.

About 125 people in the audience screamed and clapped for their favorite contestants, yelling advice during the competition.

“Use your body weight!” one man yelled. “C’mon, lean on him.”

Children lined up on the grass and held their own small competitions or tried to guess who would win, while family and friends of the contestants grabbed corn dogs and French fries and sat to watch the three-hour event.

“It’s great he’s winning,” said an enthusiastic Debbie McCurdy, light-heavyweight winner Bill Leslie’s fiancee.

Bill Leslie, a 31-year-old roofer, said he was blessed with naturally strong forearms.

He has competed the past three years and made it to the finals of the regional competition in 1989.

Leslie said he trains for the competitions by arm wrestling in bars.

“It tears the muscles up,” he said, “but it’s a hell of a lot of fun.”

WHAT’S HAPPENING: Today’s schedule of fair events, B3.