This annual San Francisco Bay Event was held in beautiful Palace of Fine Arts Theatre with new event promoters Jon Lindsay and Steve O’Brien. The event also included an IFBB Pro Figure Class, which I will comment on following the men’s report. 20 outstanding men hit the stage for round one with the early standouts being Dexter Jackson and Chris Cormier fresh from their 1-2 finish at the Arnold Classic the week before. Also looking to be in top shape were Melvin Anthony and Troy Alves, both displaying tiny, tight midsections and excellent condition. Others to impress me in the early prejudging rounds were Heiko Kallbach (tightest glutes) who must have gone close to disqualification over the IFBB rules on non “glutes display”. Heiko is a fairly new pro from Germany on his first contest trip to the West Coast of USA, and may well have been marked down by the judges for this. However the fans loved it and he looked much better in the posing round where I felt he deserved to finish better than his overall 14th place. He was rock hard and showed much better condition than King Kamali and Valentine Jabes who placed 12th & 13th respectively. You be the judge when you view the DVD of the event when edited! Heiko is like a smaller version of Markus Rühl. Bob Cicherillo looked great and posed well, but a lack of hardness in the legs and abs cost him a placing higher up the list than 9th. David Henry placed a well-deserved 7th and although small in stature, he was shredded and along with Dexter showed the best condition in the contest. Mark Dugdale is a new pro from Washington State and again he impressed me with his symmetry and neatly packaged physique. He was a teenage champion at 18 and still continues to improve. His 6th placing was a good result in such a tough field. However the audience did not know he placed 6th as only the top 5 are called back on stage for the pose down round. I feel it would be a very good idea to always announce 10th to 6th places and then call back the top 5 for their final comparisons and pose down. This would be roughly similar to what is done at the Olympia where the top 10 placings are announced. Art Atwood appeared to be the biggest guy in the whole show at around 300lbs. He has huge body parts with a most entertaining posing routine. It was obvious his lack of symmetry could only get him into 10th place this time. When Art gets all the body parts to “tie together” in a more pleasing fashion, he is destined for top placing. Mike Morris displayed huge, ripped legs and is always a crowd pleaser. This time he had to settle for 11th place this time. Rusty Jeffers is another new pro, via his victory in the NPC Masters events. His posing was crisp and professional, although it seemed just a little rushed. Rusty had a large “cult” following in the audience, and has been competing for 25 years. But he was a little bit down on this occasion. Victor Martinez took out the 5th placing with his considerable size and great shape edging out Mark Dugdale. I have seen Victor in harder condition and this cost him a top 3 finish in San Francisco. Jaroslav Horvath from Slovakia is the quiet man who is often overlooked by the judges. He is small in stature, similar to say Mark Dugdale, with rock hard abs and superb symmetry. His condition was excellent and given time he will be placing in the top 3 at GPs as he did 2 years ago when he competed in the Olympia. Jaroslav needs to be a little more assertive and aggressive on stage so that he will be noticed more! Troy Alves took out the 4th placing and looked to be back to close to his very best. Tight and symmetrical with a good midsection, he was narrowly beaten by ‘Marvellous’ Melvin Anthony. Melvin is without doubt the World’s Greatest Poser and he dazzled the crowd with another virtuoso performance. Plus he has the physique to match. This 3rd placing was Melvin’s best effort this season. After his 5th at the Arnold and now a 3rd in San Francisco, Melvin has “twice” earned his return appearance at the Olympia this October. His physique was tight, hard and dry and Melvin is the perfect example of an aesthetic physique with a small waistline. That left the final battle between Chris Cormier and Dexter Jackson. Both were in outstanding condition with Dexter’s abs, back, and crisp hard muscularity versus the extra size and improved condition of Chris. I felt that Dexter would come out on top, as he did the week before over Chris in Columbus. However it was Cormier who prevailed this time. I did note during the prejudging that Chris had the slightly bigger and better leg development, I thought they were about line-ball for back, arms and delts. Chris was a most worthy winner. After so many second placing’s at the Arnold for Chris, this victory must have been sweet, but minus the Hummer and the big cheque! For Chris it was back onto the diet and down to Melbourne, Australia for the Aussie GP, to do battle with Lee Priest a week later. As a post script to this report, Lee won the Australian GP from Chris, just the same as in San Francisco several years ago when we were there to record Lee’s first ever GP victory. It is interesting to note that in the 4 GP Pro shows of the 2005 season there have been 4 different winners. They were Gustavo Badell at the IM Pro, Dexter Jackson at the Arnold Classic, Chris Cormier in San Francisco and Lee Priest in Australia. I see this as a very good sign for the sport and augers well for a superb, tight contest at the Olympia in October when Ronnie goes for #8! 2005 SAN FRANCISCO IFBB PRO FIGURE CONTEST This tough event drew an outstanding field of 23 athletes with some coming from overseas. It’s next in prestige after the Figure Olympia and the Figure International this year. I believe the furthest travelled was Cherie Loomes from Durban in South Africa. This was Cherie’s second pro show and she was delighted with her 12th place finish in the middle of the field. Cherie is the only current Pro bodybuilder in South Africa. Her delts and overall shape and condition were most impressive. She is a former World Champion from the amateur ranks. Another international competitor to impress was Lynsey Beattie Ahearne from UK. Wife of former Gladiator and Mr. Universe competitor Mike Ahearne, she showed huge potential and was possible a little overlooked by the judges. The tall and glamorous Collette Flack was another one who impressed me and has the potential for top honours. Mascha Tieken from Holland was in her 6th pro show and continues to improve. We have taped her in many contests in Europe in the past. Meral Ertunc is a cancer survivor, former bodybuilder and making her pro figure debut. She was in amazing condition. Now to the top 5. In 5th place was the beautiful Rhonda Riley displaying perfect symmetry and a wonderful “small physique” that I feel defines what the judges are looking for in the “FIGURE CLASS”. She was 2nd youngest in the contest. 4th place went to Chastity Slone. She has a mature physique and clinched Figure Olympia representation seeing that the top 3 were already qualified. 3rd place went to another recent first time Olympia qualifier in Christine Pomponio – Pate. She epitomises the full – figure look and showed great potential and good symmetry. The top 2 from the recent Fitness International finished in the same order once again with superstars Jenny Lynn 1st and Monica Brant 2nd. I felt it could have gone either way and I expected Monica to win. But it was again victory for Jenny. Both women are fantastic figure competitors and absolute champions with virtually no weaknesses. Jenny is particularly noted for her great abs. I tend to agree with a comment I got from a member of the audience that the women’s figure class was “swept off the stage” too quickly. I know it can be up to the MC if he chooses to extend it out a bit, call some extra comparisons etc (even though it is not necessarily part of the evening finals). But let’s give the fans of women’s figure a little extra performance, as these top women were on and off the stage too quickly. They deserve more time and respect and greater acknowledgement. Perhaps one day they will be allowed to perform one-minute free posing routines as takes place in the figure class in other federations. My special thanks to the promoters, and to Kenny Kassel for his interviews with Melvin and some of the top women on Sunday morning. We plan to edit and release the IM Pro and the SF GP DVDs as soon as we can. There will be separate DVDs for the figure class women for each Californian event, all with lots of special features. For the results click here. A complete competitor’s list will be listed with the DVD when released. |
