Arnold Classic 2023 - what did Friday's fights offer?

Before bodybuilding lovers could absorb all the impressions from Olympia, the new season started. And it is now experiencing one of its imaginary peaks, as the Arnold Classic is one of the most prestigious competitions of the year. Held for over 30 years, it bears the name of perhaps the most popular bodybuilder of all time, and a total of 12,000 competitors compete in over 60 categories and events. And let's not forget that since last year, the organisers have decided to increase the awards for successful competitors by up to 50%, which is a pretty tempting offer for competitors. Let's take a look at what Friday's day at the Arnold Sports Festival actually brought.

Classic Physique

One of the already held categories is Classic physique, where a really packed field gathered. After a few moments of presentations it was clear who would be among the favourites. It was none other than the trio of finalists from Olympia consisting of Ramon Rocha Quiroz, Urs Kalecinski and Mike Sommerfeld. They were joined by the well-prepared Alex Cambronero, who had already won this competition in 2020. And it has to be said that it was definitely something to watch. The riders were in great form and it was definitely something to watch.

But as always, there can only be one winner, and the judges named Ramon Rocha Quiroz, who improved one place compared to the previous year. That time he was not able to beat the American Terrence Ruffin. Urs Kalecinski was a close second, but he also got the prize for the best pose, and rightly so. Third place went to Alex Cambronero, fourth to Mark Sommerfeld, fifth to Courage Opara and sixth to Junior Javorski.

You can also see the results in the table below.

Fitness

A packed starting field of 10 great competitors also brought a fitness category that is very much about a combination of strength and flexibility in addition to the visual aspect. Probably the hottest candidate for the win was last year's defending champion Ariel Khadr, who is currently one of the best female competitors ever. She could only be challenged by Jaclyn Baker, but even that didn't seem very likely with an experienced eye. In the end everything turned out as expected and Khadr scored her second valuable victory. It will therefore be incredibly interesting to watch her journey to the 2023 Olympia, where she may well be challenging Missy Truscott for the title.

You can see the final results in this table:

Wellness

The last category to have its finals on Friday night was the wellness category, which is only in its second year at the prestigious Arnold Classic. Last year's defending champion Isabelle Nunes unfortunately did not participate this year, but at least it was clear that a new champion would emerge from this competition. And that was Kassandra Gillis, who narrowly defeated Angela Borges from a field of 8 competitors. The third place belonged to Rayane Fogal, the fourth place went to Alexis Adams and the top five was rounded off by Marissa Andrews.

With the exception of classic physique, all the interesting categories will be coming up on Saturday night, so you can look forward to Sunday's report. Just as a point of interest, the prejudging of the highly watched classic Open category has already taken place at this point and the judges were obviously very intrigued by the trio of Nick Walker (last year's winner), Samson Dauda and Andrew Jacked. So let's see what Saturday night ultimately brings. We'll keep you posted.