I would like to start this week's column off by congratulating two very good friends of mine; props to Jose Campos Reales and James Wright whom recently competed in the London and Southwestern Ontario Bodybuilding Championships. These two fine gentlemen put on an excellent show for the crowd while displaying physiques that every man dreams of having, every woman desires of getting and every body building enthusiast aspires to have. James unfortunately weighed in two to three pounds above his expected weight, putting him in a higher weight class against some absolute monsters. He didn't place as high as he would have liked, but it did not diminish the dedication and overall presentation of what he put on display. Jose, on the other hand placed first in his weight class giving him his first body building championship to date.

A few good friends and myself have convinced Jose to go to Ottawa this Saturday to compete in a Level 2 bodybuilding competition. This works out conveniently since Jose is already in competition shape from the previous competition two weeks ago. A lot of this level 1 and 2 mumbo jumbo is confusing and useless to the average reader; however, bodybuilding competitions could be something that many bodybuilding enthusiasts may be interested in. I will give a very a basic breakdown of how competing in Ontario works.

The Ontario Physique Association's (OPA) “tier” system is a three-level model that each competitor must follow in order to progress to higher levels of competition. Level 1 is a local championship (usually called by the city name, but not always); Level 2 is a regional championship (there are four: Northern, South-Central, Western, and Eastern); and Level 3 is the provincial-level championship.

Bodybuilding competitors must start at Level 1 to progress to Level 2 and so on. For fitness and figure competitors, though, Level 1 is optional. If someone feels they're good enough, they can go straight to Level 2, and as in bodybuilding, the top three from Level 2 qualify for Level 3.

“Level 4” is the unofficial name for the Canadian Championships which is the next available option for the level 3 qualifiers. The CBBF (the national governing organization that the OPA belongs to) runs the Canadian Championships. Those fortunate enough to be the best of the best at this event may even be the lucky recipient of an IFBB (International Federation of Body Builders) Pro card. This enables the competitor to be eligible for international competition where all other competitors are of the utmost elite.

Jose has the genetic gifts to qualify for the Canadian Championships and do some serious damage amongst fellow competitors on stage. Of course, great things normally don't come easy and he would have to be willing to put in the hard consistent work to go along with his genetic gifts and great potential.

On behalf of Jose's friends and family, we would like to wish him best wishes on his future endeavors in the sport of bodybuilding. Now I'm just curious if the capital of Canada is ready to host one of the best damn physiques it's ever going to see come Saturday.

Confused about the Championships? email rick at rmelo@fanshawec.ca