Arnold Classic 2024 was dominated by Hadi Choopan! Overall results and report

The Arnold Classic is undoubtedly a competition that needs no introduction to bodybuilding fans. This competition, which takes place annually in Columbus, Ohio, USA, and is run by, among others, the famous Arnold Schwarzenegger, is one of the highlights of the bodybuilding season. And as we informed you in a separate report, Friday's part of the program brought 3 categories. Saturday then saw the remaining 4, the most interesting of which was undoubtedly the open category. The complete report is here.

What did it look like before the competition?

At the very beginning it is worth noting that before the competition there were many tips from retired professional bodybuilders and athletes from other categories. For example, the popular Cbum tipped Hadi to win, Samson was expected to finish second and James Hollingshead third. However, a number of other celebrities also took part in the predictions and all sorts of opinions were expressed. However, as the first day of the Arnold Classic showed, in this sport nobody has anything certain and often only small details make the difference. In the physique category neither Queiroz nor Kalecinski won, but Wesley Vissers, for whom it was the first title from such a valuable competition.

In the open category, however, two names in particular were mentioned a lot - Samson Dauda, who has worked brutally on his weaknesses, and former Mr. Olympia Hadi Choopan, who has brutal volumes and recently opened his own gym! But apart from them, there were still a number of other athletes who would love to have a say in the fight for medals. So let's take a look at what it looked like.

The course of the open category

Although 13 competitors were originally scheduled to compete, in the end even the Arnold Classic couldn't avoid a forced absence. For various reasons, neither Rubiel Mosquera nor Andrew Chinedu, athletes with the potential to crack the top five, ended up entering. In the end, the starting field consisted of ten competitors, and it was clear that there would be no big surprises this time.

In the very first callout, the judges selected Hadi and Samson in the middle, and these two riders appeared next to each other several times during the semi-final and it was clear that they were headed for victory. However, each of them looked slightly different - Hadi came to the stage with his standard incredibly hard and powerful muscles, Samson obviously worked on his problematic back and his height made his physique look powerful and aesthetic. Thus, despite numerous comparisons, nothing was clear in the semi-finals.

At the same time, however, there were also interesting battles for the remaining positions, with Rafael Brandao coming closest to third place, while fourth place could probably belong to James Hollingshead after the semi-finals. The first callout was then rounded off by Antoine Vaillant and Jon Delarosa, as we reported in a separate report.

In the end, nothing radically different happened in the final and the judges therefore finally decided on the following order:

Top 6

Samson has to settle for second place, but it should be noted that he made great progress and also took the award for best posing, which can be quite a dangerous combination in the future and his moment will probably come.

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Women's bikini

In addition to the above mentioned men's open bodybuilding, Saturday's competition also offered a women's bikini category, which, however, offered a victory to the now three-time champion Lauralia Chapados. Rival Aimee Delgado finished one point behind her, with Vania Auguste in third place.

Top 5

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Physique of men

On the other hand, the men's physique has a brand new champion, Diego Montenegro, who was joined in the most important callout by Vitor Chaves, Vinicius Lima and Kyron Holden. After interesting fights and presentations of great forms, the final standings looked as follows:

Top 5

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Wheelchair Bodybuilding

Since 2016, the Arnold Classic has also included wheelchair bodybuilding, which has had only two champions in its history. One of them was fifty-one year old Harold Kelly, who had a total of six wins from the AC and five from the Wheelchair Olympia. This time, however, the competition was remarkably well prepared and it was Rajesh John from India who achieved his first title. The complete standings were as follows:

Top 5

Well, that's it for Saturday's contest. What is clear, however, is that the athletes showed great form and we can count on the bar being set in this way for future races. And we'll be there to bring you these reports.