FMS@RP2017: FBBUK

When, after the Chicago Pro this year, Wendy McCready had guaranteed her qualification for the Rising Phoenix, I did a bit of a full bio, thinking that this would probably be the high point of her competitive year. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't assuming Wendy would automatically do poorly in the placings, I just didn't imagine her in the first callout. Lisa Cross, on the other hand, well, as regular readers will know, I get a bit patriotic when Lisa's on stage, and after she had looked so amazing in Tampa, my mind had started to race. What if Alina's plan for her client was all about peaking not for Tampa in August but for the Rising Phoenix in September? Lisa had been at her best ever in Tampa, absolutely resplendent. What if, I wondered, she could look even better in Scottsdale? Could our Lisa win the whole thing? Bring it home for Britain for the first time since the one and only Andrulla Blanchette?

I dared to dream.



As I watched the live feed, it became apparent I should ditch any thoughts of Lisa winning as the names for first callout were announced. But Wendy McCready was there, beaming with pride as she stood next to Helle, with Sheila and Yaxeni the only other women at the front of the stage. We had to wait for the 3rd callout to see our Lisa, and as she gradually flexed her way into the centre of it, this Brit was cheering her on.



After Tampa, I imagine Lisa was probably aiming for the top 5, or at least going one better than her 7th last year. She knew full well what her callout position meant. I have a lot of catching up to do, she wrote before the evening show. Ultimately she placed 9th, behind Aleesha, behind Kim Buck, behind Rita Bello, and behind her 2016 self - the first time her upward curve under Alina Popa's guidance has dipped.




I, quite obviously, have no expertise, but with the greatest respect to the other competitors, I couldn't while watching the live feed, and still can't see what it was that made the judges call her out after Irene Andersen, or indeed place her below Rita Bello and Kim Buck. To me she looked as good as she had in Tampa, and deserved better; but these were different judges, this was a different show, and it wasn't to be Lisa's night after all, despite my (and her - and probably too Alina's) dreaming.



However, Lisa may, I hope, perhaps take some comfort from the fact that while this wasn't such a great day for her, her mere presence with Wendy in the line-up made it a historic day for British Female Bodybuilding - the first time in 16 years that the UK has had more than one competitor at the sport's premier professional event.




Wendy's 4th place was as well-deserved as it was surprising. Her rear double biceps was as good as any in the show, and she didn't put a foot wrong. All the years she has spent accumulating competition experience paid off on this night, by far her biggest ever success. I still can't believe it! she exclaimed afterwards. 4th in the world!!!



And this was the best result by a British woman since Andrulla was 2nd in the Lightweight class in 2001. And if you're talking about an Open class, well, Lisa, at last year's Rising Phoenix, and Andrulla, at the Ms Olympia in 1999, were the best ever placed Brits. They both placed 7th. So now the record belongs to Wendy.



Tomorrow, some of FMS' favourite images from the show, the 16 other women who competed and who we haven't focused on yet this week, and our inexpert, possibly incoherent take on the 2017 Rising Phoenix, and what it might tell us about the current state of the sport and the Wings of Strength regime. Bet you can't wait!

FMS@RP2017: ¡Viva Virginia!

A 4th place in Tampa hadn't initially been enough to qualify Spain's most muscular for the Rising Phoenix, but after the shenanigans detailed in our Wings of Strength Goes Wild post, Virginia's name had been added to the list. A most popular addition too.



I truly love Virginia, her physique is amazing, wrote one of her devotees during the Rising Phoenix build-up, a sentiment shared by many. I've talked with her on webcam and she is a very nice lady, he added. A couple times she invited me to Spain, but I don't think my wife would like that. Indeed. OK with the webcam chats though?



Others noted how spectacular Virginia can look before a contest but not so spectacular when stage time arrives, a point we've made here before. Her physique always looks unreal and almost unbeatable, says one. Every time I see an image of her, she looks closer and closer to being one of the most dominant competitors on the scene until... she's on stage and is dwarfed by some of the other girls and I realize she actually isn't as big as she looks. Still, her arms are massive and her back is phenomenal.



Maybe she's got better at hiding her flaws and getting the judges to focus on that phenomenal back and those dreamy arms because she still looked ridiculously big and unbeatable before, but less so next to the competition in Scottsdale. However, that 4th in Tampa and a very popular 5th here (plus the 3rd place award for her pre-routine video presentation) makes for easily her most successful professional year to date. Result: she's sponsored for 2018, and pre-qualified for the next Rising Phoenix.




Un año triunfal, as they say in Madrid. I'm so happy, she wrote after the show, one of the few-and-far-between occasions she has posted on her Instagram in English.



After the show some photo shoots, and then it was back home. About to scare the living mierda out of the person who's waiting patiently for that lift to arrive...

¡Disfrutar!

FMS@RP2017: IFBB Arizona Pro

Lest we forget amid all our excitement over the Rising Phoenix, the IFBB Arizona Pro is a uniquely all-division all-female show, and the women who came out to compete in Bikini, Fitness, Figure and Physique (all well-aware they were playing second fiddle to the FBBs, and some of whom would be going on to compete at the Olympia the following weekend) deserve credit for choosing to do so at this particular show.



Despite doing what looks suspiciously like a bicep flex, Jennifer Ronzitti took home the big Bikini sword, while in Fitness Ryall Graber (sadly no routine pics I can find) added this title to the one she took in Chicago earlier in the season. Both are now already pre-qualified for the 2018 Olympia. Winning this competition was a great honor for me, gushed our Fitness champ afterwards. A dynamite weekend!

FIGURE

As always, the Figure class contained plenty of muscular treats, Slovak beauties Adela Onrejovicova and Lucia Kosecka among them. Adela (top left), a two-time Olympian now, finished 4th, while Lucia (top right), 7th on her pro debut after winning the IFBB Worlds this year, did plenty of not-so-surreptitious tricep flexing. Nice.




After winning her class at the Jr. Nationals last year, glamorous "Muscle Goddess" (she says, and she's right) Devoné Martin (bottom left) has been busy collecting top 3 finishes in her first pro season, although she could only manage 12th here. In contrast, Beckie Boddie (appropriate name or what?!) has been a pro since 2013, but her 6th here was one of her best ever placings. Swell digs the definition all over that Boddie.

Superstar!



Once again, the Arizona Pro attracted one of the Figure phenoms FMS has dubbed "The Freaky 3". Last year Candice Lewis-Carter took home the title, this year it was the turn of the gorgeous Cydney Gillon. It was beautiful to be a part of my first ALL WOMAN pro show! she said afterwards. So much camaraderie, muscle, and grace!




Big week for Cydney, it turns out. Turning 25, winning her fifth pro title here and... well, let's just say that the following week things got even better and wait for our Olympia review next week to fill in all the details of just how much better.

PHYSIQUE



Just as the Rising Phoenix was a battle between two women, so the Arizona Pro Physique title was hotly contested by two of the divisions top bodies in 2017.




In her first Physique year after a few in Figure which included two Olympias, Jennifer Taylor already had wins in San Antonio and Tampa to her name. She was, however, conscious that Arizona would be her biggest challenge yet. I knew this show was going to be exciting because the competition was getting tighter heading into the Olympia, she said. I was ecstatic to be in the mix with these incredible ladies.




Ultimately, Jennifer had to settle for 2nd, with the (as we noted recently on FMS) hulkier-than-you-think Heather Grace taking her second pro title of the year. Heather never does less than all she can to make sure the judges get an eyeful of her devastating rear, and it was no different here, the first pose of her presentation presenting her gluteal assets in some style. Like Cydney, our Figure winner, Heather was at pains to praise this unique event afterwards. The Rising Phoenix Show is special in that it showcases the Female Bodybuilding World Championship and celebrates the female divisions of the sport, she said. The energy is incredible from the sheer number of dynamic women, and there is never a shortage of iconic athletes to inspire and provide a dose of historical perspective. Her personal favourite "iconic athllete"? With that back and that bum who do you think? It's Lenda Murray, of course!




Elsewhere in a packed (and jacked) Physique field of 21 women, FMS swooned to the how-have-I-never-heard-of-her-before charms of Karin Hobbs (3rd) - it's beause she's not competed in nearly three years, at least that's my excuse anyway - and the thoroughbred frame of Candrea Judd-Adams, who placed 4th. One of the most notable things about the Physique class here was the copious beautiful bicep peaks on offer, and of those, the ones belonging to the evergreen Jodi Miller and the hot and hard Olga Belyakova were probably the peakiest, most swoonworthy of all.



Heather and Jennifer took the top two places in the Masters Physique class as well. And there was a Masters Bikini class (won by Iveth Carreon, 8th in the Open class) and a Masters Figure class (the very tight Karen Noorlun, 10th in the Open) too.




Excluding the Rising Phoenix itself, that makes a grand total of seven different all-female classes, with, by my reckoning, eighty-five more or less muscular female physiques for the audience to get excited about. And that makes for quite a show.

Back to the main event tomorrow!