Here at New York City’s Tribeca Performing Arts Center a nip-and-tuck battle has emerged in the men’s open bodybuilding division, with no clear winner and four men vying for top honors.
The first callout of prejudging consisted of (from left to right onstage) Hidetada Yamagishi, Dennis Wolf, Roelly Winklaar, Eugene Mishin, Toney Freeman and Erik Fankhouser. Based on the judges’ shuffling it appears that the top four will include Yamagishi, Wolf, Winklaar and Freeman. Each man has his own set of strengths that gives him a case for being the show’s top dog. For Hide it’s thickness and conditioning. For Wolf it’s width and shape. For Wiklaar its conditioning and clean muscles and for Freeman it’s an X-frame and overall balance. The evening show will make the difference and deliver us our winner.
In the men’s 202 division a dogfight between 2x reigning champ (and 2x 202 Olympia winner) Kevin English and Jose Raymond, who is markedly improved. Whereas Kevin is showing his usual freaky shape and fullness, Jose is a tank, and a shredded one at that. Included in the 202 first callout were John Frederick Arendsz, Jason Arntz, Sean Jenkins and Vincent Wawryck.
In women’s bodybuilding Cathy LeFrancois could be poised to make it three in a row in New York. She’s spot-on and possessing of terrific shape. She faces a strong challenge, however, from Debbie Bramwell, Heather Foster and Rahel Ruch.
The day’s proceedings started off with bikini, a competition which features standouts Sherilyn Roy, Shelsea Montes, Kristal Marshall, Kat Holmes and Missy Coles, all of whom made the first callout.
The NY Pro’s finals are scheduled for 6pm this evening. With half the scoring taking place tonight anything can happen, so be sure to check back right here on flexonline.com for contest results as soon as we get them.
