Yaxeni Oriquen made history on Friday night, becomming the first competitor in the 20 year-history of the event to win four Ms. International titles. Perhaps equally noteworthy was the fact that the most dominant competitor in female bodybuilding over the past five years, three-time Ms. Olympia and three-time Arnold Classic champ Iris Kyle, was left out of the top six of this year’s iteration of the annual Columbus musclefest.
Now four-time winner Yaxeni Oriquen brought a slimmer, more refined physique to bear as she collected the $25,000 first place prize, edging out Dayana Cadeau. Third place went to 50-year-old Lisa Aukland, fourth to 52-year-old Betty Pariso, fifth to Brenda Raganot and sixth to a hyper-striated Cathy LeFrancois.
Aside from Yaxeni’s impressive win, the story of the night was clearly the judges’ decision to leave Kyle, who was is good form, out of the finalist’s row.
Clearly, they were as distracted as the audience by the panoply of abscesses on her corpus. Two large knobs adorned her glutes and another on her shoulder. So obtrusive were they that it became difficult to assess her physique, particularly in rear poses.
In fitness Kim Klein set herself up as the de facto favorite for this year’s Olympia, with a spirited performance that was strong from start to finish. A very popular Jen Hendershott (she received the evening’s biggest ovation) took second, despite a pair of balloon boobs and Hooter’s outfit.
In figure San Diego’s Gina Aliotti continued her rise up the ranks with an Figure International win – the fourth of her career – and a cool $16k to go with it. Young, pretty and ambitious, Aliotti is a soild poster girl for her sport and is rapidly moving up the ranks. Aliotti placed sixth at last year’s Figure International before going on a tear that saw her win the Tournament of Champions Pro Figure and place second at the Olympia in a two-week span to close out the 2007 season. Second place went to Jennifer Gates, third to 5’9″ Amy Fry, fourth to Chastity Sloan, fifth to Sonia Adcock. Paola Almerico rounded out the top six.
With the stunning fireworks of the Friday night show now in the books all of us here in Columbus await what promises to be an amazing Saturday. Join us right here on flexonline for all the latest updates from Columbus.
