Legion Sports Fest Pro 2023: Last chance to qualify for Olympia for Charles Griffen! Results and report

The last opportunity to qualify for the November Olympia was yesterday, Sunday 8th October. There were two simultaneous events, the Italian Italian Olympus Pro and the much busier Legion Sports Fest Pro held in the US state of Nevada. And while the first of the mentioned competitions was chosen by Czech pro Pavel Červinka, the popular Legion was attended by Honza Turek and Lenka Ferenčuková. How did they do? And how did the competition go? You can see it in this report.

Pre-competition predictions

Due to a major change in the rules for this competition season, it was no longer possible to qualify for Olympia through the scoring system, but only the winners of individual races have a chance. This was the last chance to compete for their qualification ticket and a number of quality competitors decided to take advantage of this. According to the start list, Honza Turek had twenty-two competitors, with the most numerous team being the American competitors. There were 14 of them at the competition and among them were of course the biggest favourites of the whole competition.

For example, Charles Griffen wanted to make his debut among the pros at this year's competition and since he finished 14th at last year's Olympia, it was clear that he would be a force to be reckoned with. If he showed good form, he would of course have a great chance of winning. However, as expected, John Jewett, who has already qualified for the Olympia in the 212lb category, will try to prevent him from doing so, but this time he will be matched against the pros.

Should he manage to win, he would be one of the few athletes to qualify for both categories in the same year. One of the athletes with this accomplishment was Shaun Clarida, who qualified this way in 2021 and even won the Olympia a year later in the 212 category.

According to the predictions of sports commentators, Justin Rodriguez, who finished 15th at last year's Olympia, could still surprise, so it is clear that he would like to repeat his success. This is only the second race for him this season and he finished eighth at the packed Arnold Classic. So it's clear that instead of competing regularly, he put all his efforts into quality preparation for Legion Sports Fest PRO, so fans could be full of anticipation for the form he would eventually show.

Open category

The course of the competition itself was in line with the pre-competition predictions and nothing special happened to shake up the standings. Charles Griffen showed a fantastic form, which he had already announced in the photos posted on social media, but in real life he looked perhaps even better and thus secured his third career qualification for the Olympics. John Jewett finished just behind Charles and was just a short distance away from qualifying for the Olympics in two divisions. So it's probably a clear signal that John will prospectively catch on among the heavyweights.

For example, at the last volume this American giant weighed 117 kilograms, so he exceeded the weight limit of the 200 division by 20 kilograms. And he didn't look too bad even with the higher body fat percentage. So it's possible that we'll see this athlete in the open category next season - and as he's proven now, he's certainly not going to lose out there. Third place was then taken by Justin Rodriguez, who unfortunately won't be able to get on the Olympia boards this year. Fourth place went to Brazilian Vitor Boff and the top five were rounded out by another American, Eric Wood. Unfortunately, Honza Turek did not make it to the top five in the tough competition and had to settle for 12th place.

Top 5

Photo galleries:

Other categories

As far as the other categories are concerned, in the popular classic physique, Terrence Ruffin, who holds two silver medals from the Olympia and will get a chance to improve his best result so far this year thanks to the Legion Sports Fest Pro, walked away with the victory. Men's physique was ultimately dominated by Kyron Holden, who had already secured qualification for Olympia by winning the Daytona Beach Pro. Fitness was dominated by Taylor Learmont, the figure category was dominated by the sovereign Jessica Reyes Padilla and the bikini category was won by Aimee Delgado. Julia Monroe dominated the women's physique category and Victoria Reyes Villa finally claimed the wellness category.

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