Europa PRO 2022 dominated by Theo Leguerrier, Gabriela Linhart takes silver!

The Europa Pro has slowly but surely established its place among the stalwarts of the competition season and even these are the races that are really valued in the qualification scoring system for the upcoming Mr. Olympia. So it was certainly to be expected that the races, which this year were scheduled for Sunday 6 November and which took place in Alicante, Spain, would provide an interesting spectacle. In total, the 10 crowded categories saw some really interesting battles for the nomination to the Olympia in December as well as quite generous prize money by bodybuilding standards.

What were the predictions for this year's edition?

Of course, the Open category was the most popular from the very beginning, with 14 heavyweights, including Bela Kokény, who took third place at the recent EVLS Prague PRO, right behind the well prepared Honza Turek and the very massive Michal Križánek, who despite his not so great preparation in terms of volume had no competition. Apart from the aforementioned competitor, however, the eyes of the experts were also on Enrico Hoffman, who finished only sixth at EVLS, but showed absolutely fantastic progress. The massive Dani Kaganovich will certainly be worth a look, and Theo Leguerrier would certainly like to make his mark in the battle for the medal positions. In the fitness category, the eyes of the Czech fans could be on Gabriela Linhartova, who was the only Czech representative at the competition.

Men's Bodybuilding Open

In the royal men's open category, 14 of the original 15 competitors took part and, as mentioned above, among the favourites were Theo Leguerrier, Bela Kokeny or Enrico Hoffmann. However, there were also a number of other athletes who showed very good form and it is clear that all athletes are already starting to slowly prepare for the Olympia, which awaits them in about a month. Although there was definitely a lot to see, the judges (and probably also the spectators) were impressed by the physical condition and readiness of the French competitor Theo Leguerrier, who earned for his perfect form the qualification for Mr. Olympia and therefore the opportunity to compare himself with Big Ramy, Brandon Curry, William Bonac or Michal Krizanek, who was nominated for the competition thanks to his victory at the EVLS Prague Pro.

It should be added that before these races Theo was already among the three competitors who would be nominated for Mr. Olympia additionally thanks to the points qualification system. The second place went to the Hungarian Bela Kokeny, who improved one place from the Prague competition and the third place went to the Romanian giant Vlad Alfred Chiriac. The fourth place was taken by Enrico Hoffmann from Germany as a standard well prepared competitor and the top five athletes were rounded off by Dani Kaganovich from Israel.

Theo Leguerrier

Men's bodybuilding up to 212 pounds

The men's category up to 212 pounds also brought an interesting spectacle, where 12 competitors competed. Great preparation combined with brutal volumes brought several competitors, but the best was the Bulgarian giant Radoslav Angelov, who was in the highest position in the additional qualification ranking before this competition. Second place was taken by his Bulgarian teammate Dobromir Delev, for whom this was one of the first competitions this year. Third place went to Italian Daniel Sticco, fourth place went to Moldovan giant Vladimir Iacovlev and the top five athletes were rounded off by Jorge Zamorano from Spain.

Radoslav Angelov

Women's Figure

The only category that had Czech representation was almost perfect for Gabriela Linhartová - in a packed starting field of 17 competitors she took a fantastic second place. Only Paula Ranta from Finland, who showed incredible form, was not enough. Slovakian competitor Adéla Ondrejovičová also made it into the top five.

Gabriela Linhartová