Texas PRO 2023: Andrew Jacked defended his impressive victory on Day 2!

The second day of the prestigious Texas PRO competition offered considerably fewer categories than the first day, but it was left to crown the kings of the prestigious open and women's physique divisions, which are usually one of the most popular categories for the audience. And given the number of big names in the aforementioned heavyweight category, it was more than clear that there would be no shortage of entertainment in the stands. Let's take a look at what the races looked like.

Open category

The starting list of the open category originally numbered 12 competitors and among them were many who would definitely like to qualify for Olympia. Among them were Andrew Jacked and Lewis Breed, but Hunter Labrada wasn't going to give them anything for free either. He did earn his qualifying ticket last week at Tampa PRO, but he still wanted to stick to his original plan of attending Texas PRO, among other events. Therefore, from the pre-contest predictions, it was somehow to be expected that it would be a duel between Hunter and Andrew in particular, since Andrew dominated last year's competition and after all he was the athlete who finished in the top eight at Mr. Olympia last year. Hunter, on the other hand, has been in great form as usual, and since he recently scored another professional victory, it was expected that he would want to show himself in a good light this time as well.

Indeed, the competition itself was more or less in this spirit. Andrew Jacked collected the first positive points already during the pre-judging, when he showed great form and his powerful X-character made a really good impression. It's clear that working under the guidance of Chris Aceto as a nutritionist and Chris Lewis (who among other things prepared Shawn Rhoden as one of the previous Mr. Olympia) is really paying off and he's making great progress under this expert supervision. After winning third place at this year's Arnold Classic, all signs pointed to him being on course to win the Texas PRO and secure his qualification for the Olympia.

On the other hand, Hunter didn't want to give him anything for free and as many people in the audience agreed, the thirty-one year old American has improved his fitness again since the last competition and showed a really fantastic form on the podium. However, mainly due to some minor flaws in some of the side and back poses, it was Andrew who the judges ultimately favoured for the top spot. Either way, it will be very interesting to watch the thrilling battle between these two athletes at the Olympia in November.

Third place then went to a rather unexpected Carlos Thomas Jr. and if you feel like you've never heard of this athlete, that's probably no shame. In fact, he earned his pro card at the 2021 NPC Nationals, but then decided to take a break, so we didn't get a chance to see him at all during the 2022 competition season. Now, when he appeared on the boards of the prestigious Texas PRO, he showed really great form and it was a really promising professional debut. So we definitely recommend keeping the name of this outstanding athlete in mind for the future.

The fourth place was taken by the aforementioned Lewis Breed representing the United Arab Emirates and the top five was rounded off by the American athlete Jordan Hutchinson.

TOP 5

Physique of women

The women's physique competition also offered an interesting spectacle, where according to the start list a total of 20 competitors were to be presented, among them was the Czech representative Lenka Ferenčuková, who won the Arnold Classic Amateur in Columbus in the past. And despite the fact that many athletes showed really great form, it was already starting to appear during the preliminaries that it would be primarily a duel between Alissa Kiessling and Ivie Rhein. The former athlete also made a start at the Olympia, while Ivie Rhein came second at the recent Tampa PRO. Despite a close fight, Ivie Rhein won first place and a qualification ticket for the Olympics, while Alissa finished second. Unfortunately, Lenka did not even make it into the top ten announced competitors. You can see the top five below:

TOP 5

And that's it for our coverage of the races in Arlington, USA. Next weekend, however, you can look forward to the Masters Olympia, which will feature a number of big names. We'll keep you updated on the race as it progresses.

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