A few postmortems on the Arnold Sports Festival pro-physique competitions, which took place on March 5 and 6, in Columbus, Ohio, are in order. That includes some thoughts on the men’s show, which really took me by surprise. Manning my post here at the IM Hollywood office, the big computer set to the Bodybuilding.com Webcast—or, in the case of the women’s judging, Dave Palumbo’s RxMuscle.com forum—and the laptop set to my new Twitter page, I couldn’t help feeling that it was just like being there. Except, of course, when the Webcast stalled at every critical moment. (When it was on it, was great; these things happen.) Except, of course, that if I hadn’t attended the event for so many years, I would not have been able to imagine being there so completely. Except, of course, that I got to organize my shopping list for my annual Oscar party during the women’s routines on Friday night, which was not a bad thing.

Also helping was the fact that the familiar winners did indeed win again. I mentioned above being surprised by the results of the actual Arnold Classic. Listening to Dan Solomon and Bob Cicherillo’s excellent commentary on the Webcast may have had something to do with that, and I wondered if they, too, were surprised. If they were, they never showed it. Going in to the night show, based on their commentary and interpretation of the callouts—undoubtedly colored by my own preference for Dexter Jackson’s physique in general—I was sure that:

1) Kai Green, the eventual winner, wasn’t 100 percent.

2) Dexter was likely ahead after the judging, but an upset by the phenomenally improved Phil Heath was not out of the question.

3) Branch Warren looked good, but he faded as the day wore on.

So, basically, I was kind of expecting Dexter to win and Kai to come in fourth (with Heath second and Branch third) instead of the other way around. (Insert smiley here.)

Oh, well. Guess I should have called L.T. and Dave Liberman, who did a bang-up wrap-up video. You can catch  “The Experts” expert opinions here.

No disrespect to Kai, who is a tremendous bodybuilder. I’ve covered a number of his wins, including last year’s Arnold Classic victory. I just didn’t think he was as good as he was at that show.

Re Dexter, whose only sin appears to be that he’s pretty much achieved his ideal physique and can no longer surprise the judges by getting better: It seems there’s nothing crueler than the collective IFBB panel when it decides someone has reached that point.

Which brings me to the women’s shows and my favorite lost cause—Mo Brant’s physique.

Now, the overall Figure International results were not too surprising. My prejudging comments proved a lot better than my notes on the men’s show. As I was watching the photos pop up astonishingly quickly in the RxMuscle.com forum and “analyzing” the callouts, I knew that although Mo could easily finish as high as fourth in that lineup, she’d be placed no higher than seventh, just out of Olympia-qualifying territory. That’s exactly where she finished.

The thing about a competitor who has been around a long time is that there is a lot of history (and a lot of water under the bridge). So it seemed ironic to me that one of the gals who beat Monica last Friday night—someone who was notably not in the wonderful condition she had displayed last fall, when she did very well—was wearing a one-piece suit that did not particularly flatter her. Ironic because I can remember one Arnold Classic weekend years ago when Mo lost the show by just a point or two and it was because, as one highly placed official told me, “I didn’t like her one-piece suit.”

Granted, that was not a direct quote. (He or she went into detail about what was wrong with the suit.) And I wouldn’t mention it at all except I was three glasses of zinfandel in by the time the figure results were announced, and I couldn’t help thinking about how unevenly the suit standard is applied in figure. Also that there’s always an out: After all, one person’s, “She was a hot mess in that suit,” is another’s “She looked amazing.…”

With the Fitness International I admit I was surprised that Julie Palmer beat Tanji Johnson out for second. Turns out it was by a single point. The judges didn’t place Tanji’s improved body as high in the physique round as I thought they would.

Adela Garcia was an easy winner, first in the physiques and second in the routines—a point behind routine-round winner Tanji. Fan favorite Oksana Grishina got some respect in the routines, taking third there and fifth overall, her best landing ever at an A-list event.

Trish Warren’s strong showing in the comparisons with a very different and attractive new look moved her all the way up to fourth overall.  Rookie Camala Rodriguez, who finished third in her pro debut at the Phoenix Pro a couple of weeks ago, rounded out the top six. Of that group, all were already qualified for the ’10 Fitness Olympia except Trish and Oksana.

As for Iris Kyle’s record-breaking fifth Ms. International win, you’ll find no arguments here—or with most of the placings. I wish Dayana Cadeau, who took sixth, had been a bit sharper. I love her smaller look. In general, the results of this show explain why the smaller, more symmetrical female flexers in the pro ranks sometimes get very discouraged. The top five here—Iris, Yaxieni Oriquen-Garcia, Debi Laszewski, Lisa Aukland and Betty Pariso—are all very big women.

A standout among the “smaller” newcomers was Russian Elena Shportun-Willemer, who finished ninth. I also thought Tonie Thompson, 11th, looked pretty darned good.

Next up for the women bodubuilders is the New York Pro on May 8. It’ll be interesting to see who besides defending champ Cathy LeFrancois shows up.

Find my Arnold Classic and Ms., Fitness and Figure International tweets here. Some day I will figure out how to link it in the blog.

Find the complete results and IronManMagazine.com photo gallery, including the Arnold Classic photos, here.

Photos by Roland Balik (from top):

Adela Garcia.

Figure top six (from left): Larissa Reis, Mindi Smith, Erin Stern, Nicole Wilkins-Lee, Heather Mae French and Felicia Romero.

Monica Brant.

Tanji Johnson.

Oksana Grishina.

Iris Kyle.

Elena Shportun-Willemer.

The top six in all three sports qualify for the 2010 Olympia.

’10 Ms. International

1) Iris Kyle

2) Yaxeni Oriquen-Garcia

3) Debi Laszewski

4) Lisa Aukland

5) Betty Pariso

6) Dayana Cadeau

’1o Fitness International

1) Adela Garcia

2) Julie Palmer

3) Tanji Johnson

4) Trish Warren

5) Oksana Grishina

6) Camela Rodriguez

’10 Figure International

1) Nicole Wilkins-Lee

2) Erin Stern

3) Heather Mae French

4) Mindi Smith

5) Felicia Romero

6) Laurisa Reis

Never thought I’d be so happy to see the back of Steve Weinberger’s head in a contest shot. Of course, having the judges’ heads lurking in the foreground of your shot is an occupational hazard of shooting from the press pit, and Steve, who’s often in the head judge’s center spot, is a frequent uncredited guest star. Today, as I open to Roland Balik’s photos from the women’s prejudging this morning, it looks like home.

In women’s bodybuilding, as the above back shot of the first callout indicates, there was a whole lotta muscle onstage at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. And that was before Lisa Aukland was called out. Dayana Cadeau was smaller and tighter, which is the way I prefer her physique. She had a problem onstage (dehydrated perhaps?) and didn’t make it through to the final callout, however.

The first callout: Debi Laszewski, Iris Kyle Dayana and Yaxeni Oriquen. Though the other three looked amazing, as frequently happens, Iris was in a class by herself.

Clearly the panel was not interested in any of the “smaller” bodybuilders onstage, who were relegated to the third and fourth callouts. I liked the looks of newcomers Alina Popa and Elena Shportun, however, and hope they’re going to stick around.

The last callout saw Iris with Yaxeni and Lisa center stage. Did Aukland knock Laszewski, who may have been at her own all time best, out of a top-three spot?

We’ll see shortly.

Find all the prejudging photos in our gallery.

Not much to say here until we see the routines. The top ladies—Adela Garcia, Tanji Johnson and Julie Palmer—all looked good and made the callout, along with Trish Warren and Camala Rodriguez. (I could have seen Tina Durkin in that group, but they brought her into the second round.) Tanji has made such noticeable improvements over the past year, you have to wonder if the wow factor will tip the judges in her favor.

Tonight will tell the tale..

Photos (clockwise from upper left): Adela Garcia, Julie Palmer, Tanji Johnson and Camala Rodriguez.

The opening comparison in round 1, for the sport that still wears two types of bathing suits—Erin Stern, Heather Mae French, Mindi Smith and Nicole Wilkins-Lee—set up what seems to be a tight competition and answers the pressing question of whether Mindi or Andrea Watson would be the hot new star to get the first callout.

Subsequent callouts indicated two different “messages” from the judges: 1) that Nicole and Erin were the top two in that group, and later 2) maybe not. I won’t bore you with the details; probably they were just being coy. By me it is not a lock for Nicole, the reigning Figure Olympia champ, but, as I often point out, they don’t ask me. It can be argued that she does have the best overall structure of the top gals.

That doesn’t include Monica Brant-Peckham, who arguably has the best structure factor in the sport, still.  Mo got the second callout in both rounds, which pretty much tells you where she will place. Not bad, actually for an old hand on her eighth trip to the International stage.

Photos (clockwise from top left): Nicole Wilkins-Lee, Erin Stern, Heather Mae French and Mindi Smith.

So weird not to be going. If I were in Columbus, Ohio, right now, I’d be standing in the corridor outside a meeting room at the Doubletree Guest Suites with my little grab shot camera grabbing shots of all the athletes coming from and going into the athletes meetings for the Ms., Fitness and Figure International. Up until last year they let us, meaning the media, into the meetings. Then we were exiled to the corridor, not a serious hardship because if you stand there long enough, everyone is going to walk by.

As I said, however, I am not standing outside a meeting room at the Doubletree with my camera but am instead seated at my desk in what we like to call the IRON MAN Hollywood office with my cat, missing my favorite weekend of the bodybuilding year for the first time since I started going at least 15 years ago. It’s a huge bite, believe me, but it won’t stop this irrepressible observer from expressing her opinions this weekend. With a little help from my friends, including IM photog Roland Balik, I’ll have a few things to say about the three women’s pro physique competitions.

I even agreed to take the Twitter challenge (http://twitter.com/ruthsilverman). There’s some serious wagering going on as to whether I can actually keep it to 140 characters. Heh, heh, heh. Stay tuned.

The IM magazine deadlines were so tight last month, I didn’t get to register my formal “predictions.” Certain of my colleagues love to nail me for not listing my picks or top six (or top 10!) for all three women’s sports. Guess this will just have to be one of those years. A few observations—predictions, if you will—I will make:

I would not be shocked if the current Olympia champions, Iris Kyle, Adela Garcia and Nicole Wilkins-Lee, won tomorrow night. I would be shocked if more than one of them didn’t win. Who could possibly stop them? you ask.

In figure: Can Nicole withstand the attacks from hot newcomers Andrea Watson and Mindi Smith, both of whom won the overall at every NPC contest they entered? It’s Watson’s pro debut, while Smith scored a big win in her own pro debut at the Phoenix show a couple of weeks ago. This is a really beautiful lineup, and anything can happen, but if Wilkins-Lee has a problem coming out on top, it won’t be from someone she’s already beaten.

In fitness: Some very intense stuff going on in this lineup. It’s tough not to pick Adela to win—two rounds or four rounds, she’s still got the total package of physique and routine. Also not tough to predict that the score-sheet dynamic between Julie Palmer, Tanji Johnson and Oksana Grishina will be different from the way things landed in Phoenix, where Jules got the top prize. Or that Camala Rodriguez is the newcomer who could shake up the pecking order. Come to think of it, pretty much anything could shake up the pecking order. With Jen Hendershott and Tracey Greenwood out of the mix, there’s lots of room for mobility. Oksana is always a wild card in the routine round: Every so often (like at the ’07 Olympia) the judges agree with the fans that hers is the best routine.

In women’s bodybuilding: Talk about your beautiful lineups. Check out the head shots for the female flexers at the Arnold Sports Festival Web site.

The burning question is whether Yaxeni Oriquen is mad enough—or lean enough—to give Iris a run for her money. If she’s held her condition from Phoenix, that could be a seriously burning question.

Also whether  Dayana Cadeau is determined enough to get back into top-three-contention shape. Or whether rookie Zoa Linsey, a sensational-shape Canadian flexer who scored the third Olympia qualification behind Yaxeni and Betty Pariso in Phoenix, can crack the upper echelons (Dayana and Debi Laszewski, look out!). There are a bunch of smaller, more symmetrical types in this show as well, including European stars Alina Popa and Elena Shportun. It will be interesting to see if they have a glimmer of a chance.

So many burning questions, all to be answered tomorrow….

Photos (from top): Nicole, Adela and Iris are ready to fight off some stiff challenges at this weekend.