This was the last of the early season GPs and in this one it was probably a case of saving the best for last!  Being the 4^th Aussie GP staged by our local champion promoter, Tony Doherty, he really wanted to make it memorable.  Last year a few of the top guys let him down at the last moment, but not this time.

It is a long way to travel to Australia and then one has to recover quickly, get up on stage and look “shredded”.  Not an easy task after a long flight.  This year Tony had the “top man” in Dexter Jackson, fresh from his victories in the Iron Man and San Francisco GPs.  He also had Chris Cormier defending his title and trying to make it 4 in a row “down under”.

The fans also enjoyed the following highlights:

·                    Markus Rühl in his first ever appearance in Australia along with Ronny Rockel.

·                    Craig Titus and King Kamali turning on the mother of all battles.  It was personal – it was a 2-man war.  The judges called just the 2 of them out for comparisons and let them go at it.  I have never seen anything like this and the intensity was quite incredible.  This time Kamali came out on top, reversing his placing with Craig from the Arnold Classic.

·                    Jaroslav Horvath who travelled all the way from Slovakia (in Central Europe) to try and qualify for the Olympia.  But sadly his superbly symmetrical and ripped physique could not help him place higher than 4^th.  Just one placing away from Olympia qualification.

·                    Top placed Aussie Mike Kypreos coming in at 9^th in his first pro event.  It was also a pro debut for Maltese Charles Duca, now a resident of Australia, in 10^th place.

·                    Thomas Stellander coming all the way from Norway.  He is the worlds most  northerly placed pro bodybuilders.

The sell-out crowd enjoyed the battle between “The Blade” Dexter, Chris Cormier and Markus Rühl.  It was clearly Dexter with his complete package of symmetry, size and condition winning this first GP in the southern hemisphere.  Chris Cormier edged out the humungous physique of Ruhl.

It was an outstanding field of 15 top physiques and said to be the best pro line-up seen in Australia since the 1980 Mr. Olympia.

We captured all the action as usual along with the pump room and the seminar given by some of the top guys.

See the complete results by clicking here.  For the contest DVD click here.  And for the Pump Room DVD, click here.