Flex Weekend Pro 2023: Nathan De Asha dominates the competition and heads to Olympia! Results and report

Although this weekend offered several races for the pros to participate in the hunt for qualification for November's Olympia, coincidentally all the renowned competitors chose the Flex Weekend PRO held in Milan, Italy. Just looking at the start list, it must have been clear to everyone that although these races would be very tough for the competitors still waiting for a qualification ticket, it would be a wonderful spectacle for the spectators. Let's take a look at how it went in this report.

Pre-competition predictions

Flex Weekend PRO will feature only three categories, namely men's open bodybuilding, men's physique and bikini. Nevertheless, there was a lot to look forward to, because only the first of the mentioned categories promised the participation of 22 athletes, among which was to be the Czech pro Jan Turek. Honza had already shown last year, for example at EVLS, that he has the skills to be in the top position among the pros, but this time he will have a really hard time.

In his way there are 5 pros with experience from the Olympia stage - and these are big names like Nathan de Asha, Blessing Awodibu, Regan Grimes, Theo Leguerrier and Andrea Muzi. And then there's Roman Fritz, who is already qualified for Olympia thanks to his win at the Bigman Spain PRO in July/August. Czech fans might also be interested in Slovak pro Tomas Tabachar and although he and Honza might surprise, they don't have much chance to win on paper.

Many foreign commentators rather expected Blessing Awodibu, Regan Grimes and Nathan de Asha to duke it out. Blessing would certainly be keen to mend his appetite after his 4th place finish at this year's Chicago PRO, and judging by the photos on his instagram it looked like he had worked on his slightly lagging legs and would show up in great form. But standing in his way will be the narrow waist and monstrous back of Regan Grimes and the undeniable experience of Nathan de Asha. Whatever the outcome, it will be a joy to watch.

Open category

From the original 20-strong starting field, some competitors eventually dropped out, as is usually the case, and the whole event started with a prejudging of 19 fighters. With none of the hot favourites for victory amongst the missing athletes, the whole event was somewhat in line with expectations, with Regan Grimes and Nathan de Asha in particular showing great form. However, apart from them, Chinese competitor Liang Yan also shone in the best light, showing brutal muscle development especially in the lower limbs and offering a really cool spectacle in his presentation.

However, to the surprise of the spectators and probably himself, he did not appear in the first call-up. The opportunity to show, in fact, was given to Blessing Awodibu and Roman Fritz, who, unlike the other competitors, already had a clear participation in the Olympia.

The second call-up already belonged to the aforementioned Chinese competitor, where he was joined by Theo Leguerrier, Andrea Muzi and Honza Turek, among others. However, in the course of the next callouts it became clear that Yan was really up to more and so in the penultimate callout he appeared alongside Blessing and Roman Fritz, while the last callout belonged to the aforementioned pair of Regan Grimes and Nathan de Asha.

It was an interesting spectacle, if only because Nathan was a bit better prepared on stage (especially in the semi-final), but Regan made up for it all with brutal muscle volumes, the likes of which he has perhaps never shown in his career. So it was unclear until the last moment who the judges would ultimately favour. Well, there's no point in suspecting, it was Nathan de Asha who, besides qualifying for the Olympia, also took the prize money of 10 thousand US dollars and the British pro's trip to the other end of Europe undoubtedly paid off.

The second place went to Regan Grimes and the third place went to Roman Fritz. Fourth place went to the much talked about Liang Yan, who showed that he definitely has his place among the pros and has improved 3 positions since his debut at last year's Wings Of Strength Pro. Rounding out the top five was Blessing Awodibu, who was probably expecting more from the race, especially since his form was very good as usual. However, this time it was not enough in the packed competition and his failure was probably also due to a significant and visible to the layman's eye imbalance between left and right leg, which can easily spoil the overall impression at professional races.

Judging by his position in the next race, Honza Turek was somewhere around seventh or eighth place, which he was fighting for with Tim Budesheim. Slovakian racer Tomas Tabachar finally appeared only in the fourth callout and it looked like he would end up somewhere around 15th.

Photo galleries:

Bikini category

In the bikini category, Lisa Reith took the first place, finally fixing her mood after many not so successful races this season. With the exception of T.R.U. Athlete UK PRO, where she took second place, this German competitor was mostly around 5th to 6th place. This time, however, it finally worked out and she too will get the opportunity to compete against the best athletes in her category at the Olympia in November.

Photo gallery:

Category Physique men

As for the physique category, there were also a number of great competitors, but the biggest favourite to win was Ali Bilal, a Belgian competitor originally from Afghanistan. And no wonder, as this athlete has also placed in the top ten competitors at last year's Olympia, so it is only good for the spectator appeal that this year he will again get the opportunity to compete against other competitors on the Mr. Olympia stage.

Photo galleries: