This years FIBO was a breath of fresh air as a number of new things were presented for the enjoyment of the huge audience.  For example the bodybuilding contests for men and women with cash prizes and also a Men's Bench Press challenge with cash prizes, all provided by the AllStars company.  Plus an IFBB Men's Fitness contest.

In fact I spent most of my time at the AllStars 2003 Show of Strength stage, both front and back stage and in their gym area.  This is where all the hard core action took place.  It would be fair to say that Fritz and Stephan as owners of AllStars were personally responsible, along with their very professional team, in making FIBO the great success that it was.  I take my hat off to them, along with my thanks for extending me every courtesy at their show stage.

Some exciting new physiques  were introduced so I have dubbed this the Year of New Faces!!

They included Juraj Vrabel, Daniel Medo, and Natalya Lenartova from Slovakia, Kamal Elgargni from England, Michael Schetter from Germany and young Frank Cuppens from Belgium.  Frank is just out of the junior ranks and is current Mr. Belgium and the training partner of Steven "Siggi" Segers.

The guest posers were all in great shape with some of them also competing in the Men's bodybuilding contest.  The undoubted star of the guest posers was the superbly conditioned Slovak Stefan Havlik.  He has near perfect symmetry, a great 6 pack, huge calves and charisma as well.  His sword posing routine was quite exceptional and incorporated martial arts movements.  I never grew tired of seeing it.  Stefan is a soldier by profession, is 5'9" tall and 230lbs in his ripped FIBO condition.  Apart from being Mr. Slovakia several times, he won the 2001 European Championships in his class.

Of equal excitement to the crowd was home grown German Pro star Heiko Kallbach.  He was absolutely shredded in preparation for his appearance at the NOC in a few weeks time.  His skin was paper thin, his size was enormous, and he has that freaky brutal look which many fans admire.

Kamal Elgargni was another sensational new poser on the AllStars stage.  He is peaking right now for his Pro debut at the NOC in NYC on May 31st.  Kamal did an extended pumping , oiling and posing segment for me backstage, as did Juraj Vrabel and Igor Kocis.

Igor Kocis is a World Champion and he always appears in 100% condition.  He was a clear class winner in the men's contest and runner up to the overall winner Stefan Havlik.  The other class winner was Uwe Riedel of Germany.

Olaf Maneval won the Men's Fitness Class with Diana Bayer winning the Women's Figure - Fitness Class making this a double for Germany.

Talking about brutal, massive physiques, Paco Bautista and Juraj Vrabel were high on the list and enormously popular with the crowd.  Paco in fact first became famous due to the publicity he received at FIBO a few years ago.  He was in pretty good condition this time with no problems in the area of his 'pecs'.  His massive legs always remind me of Tom Platz at his peak.  Plus his stage presence is dynamic.

Last year's Andreas Popovic has changed his name and was this year called Andreas Frey.  He is a huge young man, well over 6' tall and with 20" plus arms.  His routine was dramatic and well presented as he emerged from a black shroud.  His condition was also quite outstanding and he later placed 2nd in the Over 90 Kg class with Erich Beil 3rd and England's Jason Corrick 4th.

Michael Schetter was another tall young German star in a roughly similar mould to Frey.  Michael's posing routine was also very popular with the crowd as he moved to every corner of the vast stage so that his fans could see him up close.   You almost caught the drops of sweat!!

Siggi Segers presented a wonderful new posing routine starting out dressed as a quarter back in American football.  Siggi always appears in very good shape.

Acrobatic physique star Daniel Medo of Slovakia thrilled the crowd with his back flips and 20" arms.  He is a new boy on the block and is headed for future greatness when he brings his legs up a bit more.

This year the women guest posing on the AllStars stage were a bit light on the ground, with Reggiani (La Bestia) Da Silva, Natalya Lenartova and Pascale Seels as the stars.  But the women's bodybuilding contest had good quality and depth.  Plus I shot extensively in my workout segments with various other women such that I will have a top class Women of FIBO video again this year.

There was an American presence at the AllStars stage with Shawn Ray, Dexter Jackson, and Dennis James coming up on stage to chat with Dorian Yates.  Dexter was in very good shape and on both Saturday and Sunday took his shirt off and posed for the appreciative crowd.

On the Universal stage, which was managed and MC'd by Monica Brant, I taped the following stars:  Maryse Manios and Alain Beligue both of France, Giovanni Thompson and Anja Timmer of Holland and Andrew Giordonello from USA.

I spotted former NABBA Amateur Universe winner, and now NABBA Pro, Jose Acosta in one of the equipment halls.  He was in superb condition so I taped him working out on the equipment and then posing.  This star from Spain is preparing for the 2003 NABBA Pro Universe on October 11th in Newcastle England.

Last but by no means least, we got a number of men and women to do workout and posing segments on the gym equipment.  They included Siggi Segers, Frank Cuppens, Jürgen Berlet, Jose Chappotin, Maryse Manios, Reggiani Da Silva in a superb stretching segment, French new sensation Nadine Khoualed, Susanne Malekpur and Lizzy Taylor.

For all the Bautista fans I did get some back stage pumping of Paco and most of the other guys from the AllStars stage.

Finally I saw the following guys but as far as I know they were not posing on any stage: Vince Taylor, Ed Van Amsterdam, Thomas Scheu, Serkan Cetin, Florian Maier, Umberto Morandell, Matthias Herzog, and Poli Moutevelidis. I also caught up with my old friend and helper from the 70s whom I had not seen for 26 years, Wilfried Dubbels.

I shot over 11 hours of material this year, and it should edit down to four great videos - separate Men & Women of FIBO, plus the men's and women's bodybuilding contests and the highlights of the bench press challenge.  Germany's pocket Hercules Markus Schick set a new world record of 572 lb (260kg) Bench Press for an all-time world record at a body weight of 165lb (75kg) and narrowly missed an attempt at a 600lb bench press.  This would have made him the lightest man in history to bench the magic 600lbs.  He will do it next time.