Dubai Pro 2024: Fantastic success of Miroslav Juricek in a tough competition! Report and results

Football fans will surely agree with me that the UAE is slowly taking over a number of great (and once great) footballers based in Europe. They don't attract a long tradition, who knows how much fan enthusiasm or prestigious matches, but they do promise mountains of money. And the last mentioned factor has attracted a number of prominent figures from the bodybuilding scene to Dubai. On Sunday, July 28, Dubai PRO 2024 took place, which hosted, among others, the open, 212 and men's physique categories, where Miroslav Juricek represented us. How did he do? That's not the only thing this report will be about.

Huge prize money attracted a lot of competitors

Top bodybuilding (unlike the much more popular football) cannot be said to be a profitable business and the truth is that even from big events athletes can take away a prize money of thousands of dollars, which hardly covers the cost of air tickets. And this is where Dubai deserves a huge pat on the back because their prize money for the athletes was out of this world. To give you an idea - the winner of the open bodybuilding competition took home 100 thousand dollars, which is more than 2 million crowns. Not surprisingly, the competitions attracted several famous faces.

Nathan de Asha, the legendary William Bonac or Behrooz Tabani could have had a great chance. But expectations were also placed on a newcomer to the pros, the Colombian racer Rubiel Mosquera. It should be noted that there was no open division at last year's edition of these races, so the election of a new champion was expected, which promised to make the competition all the more interesting. And when you add the Czech footprint in the form of Miroslav Juricek, who already qualified for Olympia thanks to Romania Muscle Pro 2023, it was clear that Czech fans of this sport will not be bored either.

The open category

There was certainly reason for a healthy rivalry between Nathan de Asha and Behrooz Tabani. After all, at the Italian Flex Weekend PRO 2024 Tabani lifted the trophy over his head, so Nathan had something to return the favour. For a while it looked like these two riders would do battle for the title again, but that wouldn't have been without William Bonac, who complicated the situation. After all, he had beaten Behrooz at this year's Empro Classic and he wanted to show his dominance this time as well.

In fact, all three riders showed great form - well prepared, powerful and at the same time they did not give room for any major mistakes in their form, which would take them out of the fight for the most valuable metal. William Bonac showed powerful quadriceps, Nathan possessed a well-balanced physique with an impressive upper body and Behrooz, as is his wont, presented a powerful physique with well-defined details. This trio of athletes were thus aiming for the medal positions as expected, while somewhere below the imaginary podium Rubiel Mosquera and, surprisingly, Ali Edward Kargbo from the United Arab Emirates could remain.

In the end, the judges gave the following order when announcing the results:

1. Behrooz Tabani
2. William Bonac
3. Nathan de Asha
4. Rubiel Mosquera
5. Ali Edward Kargbo

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Category 212

An interesting show was also brought by the category up to 212 pounds, where without long talk around we will tell you that the winner was the sovereign Angel Calderon, who belongs to the legends of this division and showed a hardly believable improvement since his last appearance at the New York PRO. There he finished eighth, but he was hardly looking for competition in Dubai. Interestingly though, perhaps the only competitor breathing down his neck was silver medallist Nihat Kaya. Have you never heard of him? That's quite possible, as this only twenty-one year old racer doesn't have many races to his credit. However, despite his limited experience, he presented himself very confidently on the podium and showed full form, massive muscles and dry fitness that rightfully secured him the silver. Kuwait's Nasser Sayed then finished third.

1. Angel Calderon
2. Nihat Kaya
3. Nasser Sayed
4. Marco Ruz
5. Mazin Kratus

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Physique of men

Even Czech bodybuilding fans were finally treated to a great performance, featuring a number of world-class stars - and among them, of course, the aforementioned Miroslav Juricek, who has already qualified for the Olympia and could therefore only compete with other competitors in Dubai and compete for an interesting financial prize. And it soon became clear that Miroslav would be one of the favourites to win. Only former Mr. Olympia Erin Banks stood in his way. Although he lost his title to Ryan Terry at last year's Olympia, it was clear that Banks had been working on his weaknesses in his spare time. He brought an absolutely imposing physique with his signature X-shape, incredible deltoid muscles and well-conditioned abs. Miroslav Juricek had to settle "only" for second place, although he showed unrivalled density and great upper body muscle shapes on stage. The third place was taken by Abi Pietersz, the fourth by Carlos Ocran and the top five was rounded off by Sidy Pouye.

1. Erin Banks
2. Miroslav Juricek
3. Abi Pietersz
4. Carlos Ocran
5. Sidy Pouye

Apart from these three categories, the Dubai competition also featured a classic physique category, which was dominated somewhat unsurprisingly by Breon Ansley, holder of two Mr. Olympia titles. The second place was taken by Vahid Badpey and the third place belonged to Mohammed Murshed.

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