Held in Wiesloch near Heidelberg, this incredible event pulled a huge number of competitors, being around 200.  If you have never been to an international WFF event, you are in for an experience of a lifetime!  The competitors are graded into their respective classes by WFF President Klaus Hoffmann, starting early afternoon.  The contest then gets under way at around 4pm and keeps going non stop till the last trophy has been presented at around 5am the next morning!

The format is both simple and sensible for such a massive event in that the whole thing moves at a good pace with no separate prejudging and show, or needless breaks.  Round one is for the overall line-up of the respective classes and symmetry is judged.  Next the competitors perform their routine be it physique posing, aerobic type or a fitness routine.  Finally into round 3 and this is the traditional comparison round.  Then it is straight on to the next category.

At the end of the event, the competitors are brought back on stage in the same groups as for round 1 and in the same class order.  Magnificent trophies are presented (I counted over 120 trophies on stage) and then it is on to the next class awards and so on, with respective overalls finishing with the couples.

For those categories such as Men’s Performance etc and many more where there are 3 age sections (under and over 30 and over 40), an overall judging and pose down takes place.  In less than a minute of the judging sheets being collected, the overall winner is announced and the trophy presented.  It runs very smoothly as Klaus and Marcus Schlager do a great job with so many competitors to judge.

In case you wonder about the person behind the camera, I specially train for this event in order to be at my physical peak! I am serious.  I work out every day in Europe when I am not working behind the camera.  I also take a large supply of food and water to my camera position, as it’s around 17 hours solo behind the camera from set-up to packing up! Then walking back in daylight to my hotel which was thankfully next door to the Palatin Theatre.

Now that you can picture the overall scene, here are some of the highlights.

There were 4 classes of Junior Men and the standout was Christian Basler who won the Superbody category.

In the Women’s Aerobic category, there were 5 separate classes with Junior Jolanta Mileriute and Brazilian Diana Paula Monteiro being the pick of the bunch.  Also a great effort by Melissa Will of Australia with her 2^nd place. She is a former world champion in martial arts.

Women’s Fitness was a huge category with 5 classes and many incredible competitors.  Melanie Helfrich took the overall class title from a very good Dutch star in Jolanda Beuving, the over 35-class winner.  It is worth mentioning that the Dutch fans in the audience were the loudest most incredible and excited fans of anyone in the huge crowd. They were the orange army!

Next was Women’s Performance with 4 classes and a we saw a wonderful lithe physique presented by the overall winner Nicole Kratochwil.

In the Women’s Athletic, numbers were down a little this time such that the 2 overall winners Svetlana Pugacheva and Tatjana Sharnenkova had comfortable victories.  I have watched Pugacheva develop from an absolute novice some years ago to a superb repeat champion today.  She has the total package of body and looks and is the type of female athlete who would be in all the magazines if she competed IFBB in USA.

Men’s Fitness was another huge division split into 3 classes.  In a tight finish Michael Heinz was awarded the overall trophy.  There was nothing between the top 3 or 4 in this competition.

Men’s Performance also with 3 classes saw Matthias Krause (under 30 winner) claim the overall in what was the most hotly disputed division of the whole event.  In the over 30 section, last year’s winner of his class, Patrick Heisel was given 6^th place for some inexplicable reason.  He was at least worthy of 2^nd, which should have been a toss up between him and Hanno Schupp of Australia for 2^nd.  Hanno received 4 firsts but ended up in 3^rd place.  He was in the best condition of his life and can win this class with an ounce of luck.

Men’s Athletic division saw the sensational symmetrical ripped physique of Vassili Delis win the overall title.  From the 3 class winners, it was very close but the total package and hard condition of Delis made him a most worthy winner.  Especially as he had the added stress of being the main show promoter, along with Wolf Iben.

Wayne Wilson of Australia placed a very credible 3^rd in his class. He also was only a fraction behind the winner and could easily have been 2^nd.

Men’s Super Body saw the big guys strut their stuff.  The well-experienced physique star Tamar Galal took the overall title from Andrei Popov who was 2nd in what I saw as a fortunate decision for Tamar.  Those of you who are regular GMV customers will recognize the Galal name.  Tamar has been a regular guest poser at FIBO for many years.  One FIBO year that stands out was the time he dressed as an Egyptian.

Eddie Tannourji of Australia was put into this very tough class and took an excellent 5^th place.

Men’s Masters saw Reinhard Hess win once again in the over 50s.  In the over 60s there was a very tough line-up of 7 top guys.  Australian’s Manfred Hamilton won this class convincingly from Hans-Jurgen Hojer and Gilbert Duquet with my long time Italian friend Biago Filizola in 4^th place.

In the final men’s class, Antonio Vergiani was Mr Extreme Body for 2004 with his beautifully proportioned and defined physique.

The final division for the whole contest is always the 2 separate couples classes.  Jolanda Beuving and her partner Yorick Bakker took the Pairs Fitness crown for Holland with the sensational Russians Svetlana Pugacheva and Andrei Popov being a cut above the rest, both physically and in their execution of a wonderful routine. They took the Pairs Athletic title.

I can’t say I was sorry to see this incredibly long event draw to a close.  In fact I was praying for it to end during the last few hours! But on the positive side, everyone was fairly compared in the prejudging comparisons and on the whole there were few complaints with the final results.

My camera position was perfect being in the centre of the judge’s row.  Great lighting and superb physiques will make for a wonderful set of DVDs when they are ready. Our first ever set of  WFF DVDs.  The contest will be edited as soon as we finish editing FIBO.

I would like to thank promoters Vassili Delis and his wife Peggy and also Wolf Iben for looking after me.  Plus Klaus Hoffmann and Michael Buna for photos and Lorraine March for her assistance both at the contest and in helping me carry some of my video equipment back to Australia.

For complete results click here.