Newsletter -- IFBB.com

by Andrew Michalak

2012 World Women’s Championships in Bialystok, Poland, held on October 5-7, 2012, opened a long series of the IFBB international contests. Next weekend was devoted to the greatest event in the IFBB history, 2012 Arnold Classic Europe. And in the third weekend, October 20-21, 2012, there were several big IFBB contests in Europe plus African Championships in Egypt. And this series will be continued, weekend after weekend, till the middle of December, when the 2012 IFBB Juniors and Masters will be held in Budapest, Hungary. Impressive activity!

2012 GRAND PRIX PEPA
Held in Opava, Czech Republic, attracted competitors from 7 European countries. The strongest teams came from Lithuania, Poland, Croatia and the host country. The winners:
- Men’s bodybuilding 80 kg: Karol Malecki (Poland)
- Men’s bodybuilding 90 kg: Jakub Potocki (Poland)
- Men’s bodybuilding +90 kg: Andrzej Kolodziejczyk (Poland)
- Men’s classic bodybuilding: Drazen Vrbancic (Croatia)
- Men’s masters bodybuilding: Arvydas Mickus (Lithuania)

They all met in the overall category, fighting for the top trophy and Papa gold ring, which went to the 2011 IFBB Men’s Worlds super heavyweight runner-up Andrzej Kolodziejczyk.

- Bikini fitness open category: Kristina Karaliute-Stoliaroviene (Llithuania)
- Bodyfitness 163 cm: Renata Marcinkute (Lithuania)
- Bodyfitness over 163 cm: Vanja Sajko (Croatia)

They all met in the open category won by the 2012 Arnold Classic Europe 3rd place winner Renata Marcinkute (Lithuania).
Moreover, children fitness categories were also run, with many top world competitors. This time World Championships runner-up Tatiana Kozuchova (Slovakia) got the best scores.

MOZOLANI CLASSIC 2
The second edition of Mozolani Classic was held in Zilina. It was a qualifier to the Slovak National Team for the Men’s Worlds in Ecuador, so few world champions took part but the main attraction was a battle of the recent Arnold Classic Europe super heavyweight winner Alexey Lesukov (Russia) against the Slovak world super heavyweight champion from Mumbai, Rastislav Solar. This spectacular, very close duel widely covered by the media brought victory to Solar, who showed top condition and muscle quality.

- Men’s bodybuilding 80 kg: Igor Kocis
- Men’s bodybuilding 90 kg: Marian Cambal
- Men’s bodybuilding +90 kg: Rastislav Solar
- Men’s classic bodybuilding: Tomas Tabaciar
- Bikini fitness up to 165 cm: Karina Antovska
- Bikini fitness over 165 cm: Jana Majernikova

Slovak National Team for the Men’s Worlds in Ecuador: Igor Kocis (70 kg), Peter Kokoska (75 kg), Juraj Vrabel (85 kg), Marian Cambal (90 kg), Rastislav Solar (+100 kg).

UKBFF BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIPS
Over 250 competitors participated in this big event held at the Sportex Festival, Event City in Manchester's Trafford Centre. And the participation was limited to the top six from the regional qualifying contests. UKBFF President William Tierney may be proud of this spectacular success and the sport quality of the top British bodybuilders as well as women taking part in all women’s physique sports. Men’s bodybuilding overall title went to Anthony Bailes . And congratulation to women’s bodybuilding overall winner Rosanna Harte. IFBB expert and our photographer Igor Kopek said – “She performed the best routine I have ever seen in women’s bodybuilding"! And he saw a lot.

CUP OF POLAND
Run in the open categories only, attracted the best Polish physique sports competitors, among them many continental and world championships medal winners. It was also a qualifier to the Polish National Team for the Men’s Worlds and Classic Bodybuilding Worlds. In men’s bodybuilding open category two super heavyweight giants: 6th competitor of the latest Arnold Classic Europe Marek Olejniczak and 2011 Men’s Worlds runner-up Andrzej Kolodziejczyk were separated by the Arnold Classic Europe 75 kg class winner Karol Malecki. There was one real sensation: new athlete in the line-up, Tomasz Kornalewski, won the classic bodybuilding open category over top European stars: two-time continental runner-up Robert Majewski and 2011 European champion Przemyslaw Zokowski. A new star was born? Anyway, very gifted athlete with tremendous potentials.

Men’s bodybuilding open: Marek Olejniczak
Men’s classic bodybuilding open: Tomasz Kornalewski
Women’s bodybuilding open: Agnieszka Witasek
Bikini fitness open: Paula Lewczuk
Bodyfitness open: Anna Szczotka
Women’s fitness open: Justyna Jedlikowska
Men’s fitness open: Mariusz Lewandowski
Wheelchair bodybuilding: Micha? Kilian

Polish National Team for the Men’s Worlds in Ecuador: Karol Malecki (75 kg), Tomasz Lech (100 kg), Marek Olejniczak (+100 kg), Andrzej Kolodziejczyk (+100 kg).

MOSCOW OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS
There was an extremely spectacular combat in the men’s super heavyweight category between two-time European champion and 2012 Arnold Classic Europe 4th place winner Mikhail Sidorychev and 2nd place winner at this year’s Cup of Russia Alexey Tronov. Finally, Tronov appeared the winner and then took the overall title.
Other winners: Sergey Simonov (85 kg), Arkadiy Kartashov (100 kg), Liudmila Tuboltseva (women’s bodybuilding overall), Elena Kirshchina (bodyfitness overall).

URAL OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS
Men’s bodybuilding overall title went to the 128 kg giant Sergey Kozin from Sverdlovsk, who was in a perfect shape! Sergey is 191 cm tall, has 60.5 cm biceps and is called by Russian media “the heaviest Russian bodybuilder in the IFBB”. Few years ago he took part in one or two EBFF Elite Tour shows but was not so big at that time. Then he was a runner-up at the 2009 Eastern European Championships. But it seems his best years are to come.
Women’s bodyfitness overall title went to Ekaterina Merling from Omsk. In bikini open class the line-up was formed with 26 athletes! Bikini fitness category has become so popular at the geographical border of Europe and Asia! Gold medal went to Olga Guskova from Yekaterinburg.

Photos:

PEPA Grand Prix: men’s over 90 kg top three (from L): Antonio FURIC (2nd place), Andrzej KOLODZIEJCZYK (1st place), Arvydas MICKUS (3rd place)..

PEPA Grand Prix: bodyfitness overall battle: Vanja SAJKO (2nd place), Renata Marcinkute (1st place), Vilma Salaseviciute (3rd place).

PEPA Grand Prix: bodyfitness overall winner Renata Marcinkute.

Mozolani Classic 2: Alexey Lesukov vs. Rastislav Solar (right).

Mozolani Classic 2: Igor Kocis vs. Marian Cambal (right).

Mozolani Classic 2 bodybuilding overall winner Rastislav Solar congratulated by former world champion and contest promoter Andrej Mozolani (left) and Slovak Federation President Dr. Milan Cizek (right).

Mozolani Classic 2 bikini fitness overall winner Karina Antovska.

British Championships bodybuilding overall winner Anthony Bailes.

British Championships: the quality of bodybuilders was very high: Anthony Bailes and Ricardo Correia (right).

British Championships: women’s bodybuilding overall winner and routine super performer Rosanna Harte.

British Championships: top bikini athletes: Heather Schofield (left) and Anita Bakus.

Moscow Open: super heavyweight battle: Alexey Tronov vs. Mikhail Sidorychev.

Moscow Open: bodybuilding overall category winners (from L): Arkadiy Kartashov (2nd place), Alexey Tronov (1st place), Sergey Simonov (3rd place)..

Moscow Open: the overall winners: Elena Kirshchina (bodyfitness) and Alexey Tronov (bodybuilding).

Ural Open Championships overall winners (from L): Olga Guskova (bodyfitness), Sergey Kozin bodybuilding) and Ekaterina Merling (bodyfitness).