Arnold Classic Europe 2022 | Results Report

From Friday 16 September 2022, Seville, Spain, will host the Arnold Classic Europe, an annual bodybuilding festival where the best IFBB Elite pros gather. It should be noted that for the first time in a long time, this was a competition that offered the spectators a very solid spectacle and the athletes a corresponding financial reward - in total, the competitors in the 8 categories held split over 2 million crowns. Besides, several Czech competitors took part in the competition. How did they fare?

The Open category was a big surprise

As usual, the open category, where athletes without weight limit could compete, attracted the most attention. The original eight bodybuilders, including the Czech competitor Tomáš Kaspar, were joined by the German competitor Stanimir Gaserov, who just a few hours before had won the amateur category at the Arnold Classic Europe. In terms of predictions, however, no one had any dizzying expectations from him, which was confirmed when he took the last, i.e. ninth place, and he has not yet caught the pros.

At the other end of the starting field, according to the predictions, was the Finnish racer Mika Sihvonen, who had been quite close behind the Slovak giant Michal Križánek for the last few races. However, since Michal decided to move to the NPC federation, the throne has become somewhat vacant. Although this created a fairly good opportunity for Sihvonen to take the scepter, it was certainly not as easy as it might seem at first glance. 9 months ago, he suffered a serious injury to one of his legs, after which he had to undergo surgery and it was unclear what form he would take.

Michal Krizanek dominated the IFBB Elite Pro federation before moving to the NPC federation.

He eventually returned in a form that must have pleasantly surprised many people, possessing incredible fitness and good muscle separation. In some poses there was some asymmetry between the left and right leg, but even that could not compromise the outcome of the race. In fact, the only one who was able to catch Sihvonen was the Polish competitor Mateusz Zagórowski. Then followed a rather significant drop in points, with Stanimir Etov from Bulgaria in third. He was losing to the first two riders both in muscle volume and preparedness.

With another almost twenty points gap, the fourth place belonged to a relatively unknown Colombian competitor. Rubiel Mosquera took this position despite his absolutely unsightly form, which was crowned by a rather developed gynaecomastia and abdominal hernia. It is surprising that the German rider Domenico Intermaggio finished behind him despite his excellent preparation - as well as the Czech rider Tomáš Kašpar.

The final ranking of the nine competitors can be seen in the table below, which also shows the financial rewards and points earned by each athlete:

Mika Sihvonen

Tomáš Kašpar

The category up to 95 kg was won by a fighter weighing less than 80 kg

Even though this year is coming to an end, competitors weighing less than ninety-five kilograms have not yet had a single opportunity to compete in the IFBB Elite division, which is why the current Arnold Classic Europe was a first for many. Although last year's edition was dominated by Czech competitor Jiri Cermak, this year he was ranked 11th. In a packed category of fifteen competitors, the Surinamese competitor Soepe Koese dominated, weighing just 76.8 kilograms. Although he lost nearly 18 kilograms to Haitian Spely Laventura, for example, with his height of 150 cm and brutal preparation he managed to correct the starting field and win with a difference of 9 points to the second Venancio Epolua from Angola. The third place belonged to the Portuguese fighter Pedro Esteves with a difference of only 4 points.

The complete standings, again with the prize money for each competitor, can be seen in the table below:

Soepe Koese

Jiří Čermák

Classic Physique earned metal for Czech fighter

Out of the eight categories that took place at this year's Arnold Classic Europe, the Czech fighter Jakub Kolinek was the best placed, who, like last year, was second behind the Kazakh competitor Sergey Serechshev. Both fighters were in amazing form and thanks to their sophisticated posing it was a really good show. You can see the final table of the top five riders and their points earnings below:

Sergey Serechshev

Jakub Kolinek

Men's Physique didn't bring any surprises

When you say the name of this category, most regular fans should think of Dmytro Horobets, a Ukrainian bodybuilder who has been undefeated in this category for over 4 years. Although this time the starting field consisted of 22 fighters, he didn't let anything surprise him and kept his invincibility. The results are as follows:

Dmytro Horobets

Women's Bikini Fitness had 3 Czech representatives

The last category, which deserves some more detailed analysis, was the packed women's bikini fitness category, where the starting field consisted of twenty-six representatives, 3 of whom were Czech. While the first two places were a close contest between Anastasia Zolotaya from Russia (who, however, due to the political situation, competes under the IFBB flag) and Kimberly Percival. In the end, only one point separated the two competitors, with Hungarian Karina Gavrikova taking third place by a wide margin. The best of the Czech competitors was Monika Špačková, who took 6th place. The tenth place belonged to Veronika Zemanova and Jana Jeřábková finished completely out of the classified positions. The table of the top 5 female competitors can be seen below:

Anastasia Zolotaya

Remaining categories

The remaining categories did not bring anything very interesting - for example, the women's physique category was announced only for the second time this year and had only 4 competitors, the best of whom was Yasmina Gouaich from France. In the women's bodyfitness category, two Ukrainian competitors scored particularly well. The first place went to Alina Yaman with 7 points and only one point behind her was her compatriot Yuliia Shykula. The women's fitness category was not listed in the regulations, but still took place. The first place was taken by the Hungarian competitor Eszter Balogh, who won after Maikku Hiljanen, who had previously won the amateur event, in which Eszter finished behind her. The Wellness category was then dominated by Latin American competitors, with the first two places going to Brazilians Fernanda Pignaton and Poliane Freitas, and third place going to Mexican competitor Elena Vasquez.