Pictured: Australian competitors at the Natural Olympia host hotel.

A history defining 4-day Natural Olympia on the Gold Coast last November which attracted 352 competitors from 20 countries completed an extraordinary year on multiple levels for INBA. The 2009 Natural Olympia in Australia was the platform that allowed INBA to assemble Australia’s largest National team of bodybuilders comprising of 200 members competing for Australia at the prestigious International event. Moreover, the INBA Victorian Titles created a new Victorian bodybuilding record attracting 130 competitors for the INBA Big V promoted by Australia’s Natural Olympia champion, Warren Clampit. Warren now has the INBA QLD State record of 152 competitors as his new goal. The Big V Show was also the unveiling of our new award for our best competitors; the awe-inspiring 150cm (5 ft) INBA Champion’s Sword.

INBA was heralded as Australia’s most successful drug detection sporting organisation after ASADA Drug Test findings revealed that during the 2008-09 financial year ASADA registered 29 drug test violations in Australian sport. INBA finished at the top of the sporting table recording 10 positives (35%) from our testing. In addition to our world-leading detection rate, INBA Australia became the first bodybuilding organisation in the world to start blood testing natural bodybuilders with several INBA competitors having both urine and blood samples taken. This means INBA is at the razor’s edge for drug detection and now has the ability to also detect growth hormone and insulin doping.

In 2009 INBA made further improvements to our event management introducing optional posing routines and no posing routine contests to the sport with great success. We defined our unique 2 x One show format which enabled us to complete the Natural Olympia Show involving comprehensive judging and presentation of 300+ competitors in just 12 hours finishing at a respectable 9pm – instead of the wee hours of the morning! Additionally during 2009, we included the front lat spread as a compulsory pose for female bodybuilders making the judging criteria identical for male and female natural bodybuilders.

INBA is indebted to all our competitors and fans of natural bodybuilding that responded to the challenge of competing at the Natural Olympia on home soil and contributed to establishing 2009 as a most remarkable year. We can now look forward to building on this success and our many found friendships to enjoy a truly wonderful year in 2010.