The third San Francisco Grand Prix was held in the famous Zellerbach Hall on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. It was by far the largest audience I have seen at this Grand Prix and must have been very satisfying to the hard working promoter, Giorgio Tsoukalos. Round one saw 16 competitors hit the stage with a rather pale Kevin Levrone struggling from a bout of the flu. Sadly Kevin withdrew just before the end of Round 2. To please his many fans, Kevin agreed to guest pose at the evening show. He looked extremely good and posed superbly as usual. The first pre-judging call out was Jay Cutler, Chris Cormier and Dexter Jackson. It was obvious to most of us that this would be the top 3 in that order, and so it turned out. Jay Cutler was almost as cut as he was at the Ironman where his condition was absolutely sensational. He weighed around 270lbs. Chris Cormier looked very good but lacked a little detail in his back. Dexter "The Blade" Jackson was his usual ripped self and I felt had a chance for second, but was not quite as sharp as when he took the English Grand Prix last October. Melvin Anthony had lost his edge from his second place finish at the IronMan. He looked good when he tensed every muscle, but standing relaxed he seemed to have smoothed out a bit, hence his 4th place this time. But he again gave the best posing performance of the night. It will be show time seeing him back in the Olympia this year. First year Pro Troy Alves again made a strong showing with his 5th place. His condition had been maintained from the IronMan through to San Francisco and was a credit to him. He has gone straight into the top placings in his first pro season, surprising a lot of people., But he is a fighter, and has a wonderful attitude and works extremely hard. I am very impressed by him and don't be surprised if he manages to slip into the top 10 at the Olympia. (Troy qualified for the " Mr O" one week later at the Australian Grand Prix). 6th place went to a very disappointed Ahmad Haidar who beat Alves and Anthony the week before at the Arnold Classic. This time they placed above him. Ahmad later told me his body is very tired after 7 months of dieting and competing and so he will miss the Olympia this year and take a year off to consolidate. In 7th place was Quincy Taylor. The tallest and probably heaviest man in the contest, Quincy also looked very impressive when he flexed. But in-between times he appeared to be down just a little in his overall condition. He has huge potential, is young and is still improving. A rather unlucky Claude Groulx placed 8th. He has a wonderful physique, well balanced and good condition. I am not sure why the judges usually place him lower than he deserves. It was mentioned that he will make his debut in the Masters Olympia this year along with Pavel Jablonicky. Worthy of a mention was the single competitor from the UK, John Hodgson. At 5"4" he displayed excellent condition, a superb back and legs and he will place higher when he becomes better known and more experienced. The audience loved his posing and he now has to overcome that "Lee Priest short man syndrome" to place higher. John was 13th this time, but watch for him in the future. Berkeley made it three wins from three starts for Jay "The Dominator" Cutler, the last two leaving Chris Cormier in second place. This places "The Ultimate Beef" Cutler on an equal favouritism with Gunter to possibly take the Olympia crown from Ronnie this October, if they are good enough on the day to beat him!! Other highlights included: * Jay Cutler having fun with Dexter and Chris Cormier during "abs and thighs" in Round 2 prejudging. (I have a photo of this). * The on-stage face off between five time Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman and his very popular challenger Gunter Schlierkamp who bested him at the GNC. Both men ended up posing upper bodies after some skilled prodding by Lonnie Teper. * Gunter weighing a hard 325lbs. Incredible!! * Ronnie, with shirt off, in pretty good shape complete with abs, 7 months out from the Mr. O. * The exciting posedown in the audience where I noted Jay posing as he balanced precariously on backs of seats. * Jay's articulate victory speech, showing an extra dimension to the Cutler package So book your seats for the SF GP, same place next year on March 14th, one week later than this year. NPC FIGURE CONTESTS At the San Francisco Grand Prix, the NPC Bay Area Figure Extravaganza was also staged. The competition was fierce with 6 competitors in each of the short and tall classes, with 4 in the Masters Over 35 Class. Hannah PARK took the short class with straight firsts in both rounds, with the same for Rhonda YANCEY in the tall class. In the overall, it was Yancey although I felt Park had the better, more complete physique. Park is destined to win a pro card in the very near future as she has the total package. Monica CHANG took out the Masters Class from the brilliant 52 year old Nancy Mimms. At the Ironman event several weeks before, Hannah PARK won the overall figure title and is a real class act - and a great physique in the figure category. My only wish is that they could have a 1-minute posing round as is the case outside North America. If the judges feel this will encourage the women to get bigger and more muscular then they should be marked down accordingly if they step outside the guide lines. ************************************** 2003 IFBB AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX Tony Doherty staged his annual pro show and Expo in Melbourne on March 15th before a huge audience. Wayne DeMilia attended this prestigious event but sadly only 4 athletes made the long journey from USA to compete. The other 5 competitors were from Australia and New Zealand. However Flex Wheeler sent a very nice apology as he was sick in hospital. This opened the door for hard working Troy Alves to win Mr. Olympia qualification in this his first year as a pro. It also opened the door for Australia's top physique Jonathan Davie to grab third spot, ahead of Groulx and Thorvildsen, to book his flight for Las Vegas in October. Chris Cormier won this event for the third time in a row and was a cut above the rest. Troy was still in fantastic condition, held from his 4th placing at the Ironman one month before. Jonathan Davie, born in New Zealand and now resident in Australia is a huge man, weighing in at around 280lbs. I believe this was his pro debut so this result was extremely popular. He will join fellow Aussie Lee Priest in the 2003 Olympia making the first time ever for 2 Australians in this event in the same year. 5th place went to Tommi Thorvildsen who edged out Luke Wood from Sydney into 6th place. Mark Lampard of 21" arms fame came in 7th from Matt McLean in 8th and Marc Rainbow from New Zealand 9th. (Both Luke and Matt have their own videos produced by GMV Productions). See a full set of results from both Grand Prix in our results section. ********************************************* OLYMPIA NEWS This year the Olympia prize money will be increased to $400,000. First place for Mr Olympia will be $110,000 plus a Cadillac Escalade, 2nd $75,000, 3rd $50,000 and so on right down to 11th place $8,000 and 12th place $5,000. I take my hat off to Wayne DeMilia for this and for also rewarding 2 extra guys this year with prize money. There are many other perks enjoyed by all competitors, men and women, including accommodation, expenses, limos, and air fares from wherever they live. John Davie will have to travel the furthest. This year will see the Expo in the brand new Convention Centre at the Mandalay Bay Hotel. The prejudging for the 3 women's events plus the press conference will also be held on a special stage to be erected in the Expo area. The Olympia Weekend will be an exciting event including the first ever Figure Olympia and a serious challenge to Ronnie from Jay and Gunter. We look forward to meeting many of our friends and customers at our GMV booth and plan to have a number of DVDs with us this time! ******************************************** One of our customers has asked for more articles by me about the "good old days, the Golden Era of bodybuilding". If more of you wish to hear some of these stories, please let me know. At the end of this month I will announce the winner of our nicknames quiz, along with all the answers. Till then, keep pumping. PS: Many of you have asked why we were not taping at the Arnold Classic this year. It is a long story and a sad story. Bacteria TV had a 100% exclusive on the AC weekend and with Fox Sports to air their programmes. About 3 days before the event, we got a call from Columbus that Bacteria TV had pulled out and we could now do the event. But it was too late for us as we had another 3-day production booked in for that weekend. So there it is it in a nutshell. No Arnold Classic videos or TV this year. But there is always next year and we are determined to negotiate early for a video contract with Jim Lorimer Productions for 2004. *********************************************** At the recent IRONMAN Pro Invitational contest, 3 awards were presented by John Balik. Wayne received the OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY AWARD, Bill Pearl received the PEARY RADER LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD and the ARTIE ZELLER PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD went to Leo Stern. Wayne has been filming and videotaping all the top guys and contests for 35 years. Bill Pearl is a true legend of the sport and also has 4 Mr Universe titles. Leo Stern is a great photographer from the Golden Era of bodybuilding and did most of the wonderful photos of Bill. (See photos of Wayne below taken by Raymond Cassar of Muscletime.) On the day before the contest, IRONMAN hosted a luncheon for Bill Pearl and his family and friends. I will post some of my photos from this function in the Gallery shortly and Wayne also shot video of this wonderful get-together. (You can read Wayne's Acceptance Speech in full in our Articles section). Tina Gallasch |
