Arnold Classic 2023: The Results of the Classic Physique!

 Arnold Classic 2023: The Results of the Classic Physique!

In contrast to last year's Mr. Olympia, when almost 60 athletes competed in the Classic Physique, the Arnold Classic 2023 should not even have a two-digit number of participants.

The starting field in Columbus (US state), which is always rather manageable, is due to the fact that you can only get involved on stage by invitation.

Two Germans received this honor: Urs Kalecinski, who was taking part for the second time, and Mike Sommerfeld.

No big surprises in prejudging

Even the numerical callouts were - whether intentional or purely coincidental - ordered almost as the judges later made the first and second comparison.

After the prejudging at the latest, it was clear that neither Junior Javorski nor Jason Brown nor Courage Opara would have a say about the victory.

Only Alex Cambronero made it from the worse numerical comparison into the first callout, where unsurprisingly Urs Kalecinski and Mike Sommerfeld were waiting for him alongside Ramon Dino.

With the latter, the man from Miami fought only an indirect battle for third place. The two were therefore not compared side by side.

What was noticeable: Mike's hardness dropped compared to the top athletes. He didn't seem sharp enough and the momentum in his legs seemed less than usual. There were also problems with abdominal control.

Ramon Dino and Urs Kalecinski, on the other hand, who were dueling for first place based on their position, brought the necessary toughness to the floor in equal measure.

The Brazilian, who initially had the edge for many, was able to claim more fullness with a very similar form. Whether the German IFBB Pro achieved the desired fuller look had to be given a question mark in the prejudging.

Nonetheless, the door remained open for German success.

However, all of the seven participants still had a few more hours to bring about minor or even major changes before the finale.

Urs Kalecinski receives Best Poser Award

During the individual posing routines in the finals, it was inevitable that the majority of the competitors knew how to use the few hours of renewed preparation time for themselves.

The two German irons in the fire - namely Urs Kalecinski and Mike Sommerfeld - presented themselves optimized and were able to convince the most with their freestyle.

While Mike performed much better overall than in the prejudging, with the middle section still a little blurry, Urs was also able to pull out the necessary stops.

Before the obligatory posedown, the judges again divided the seven athletes into two callouts, which once again clearly worked out the end result.

In a five-man comparison with Alex Cambronero in the middle and Mike Sommerfeld on the right, the judges made no secret of who took the last place on the podium.

With the bottom line more toughness and fewer weaknesses, the bronze medal went to the American, while Mike had to make do with fourth place.

Ramon and Urs were compared measurably more often. With almost the same severity, it gave the impression that we were finally dealing with a preferential decision.

With Ramon you have the currently more complete athlete. Urs conjures up more classic attitude on stage and noticeably stands out with his posing, which also earned him the Best Poser Award and an additional $10,000 this weekend.

The choice of the decision-makers around Head Judge Steve Weinberger ultimately fell - drum roll - on Ramon Dino, who thus scooped the gold medal.

For Urs Kalecinski, this meant second place and a silver medal.

It would certainly not have been a serious misjudgment to take the whole thing the other way around. The two fierce competitors had both pros and cons.

In the second attempt, Ramon Rocha Queiroz secured victory in Ohio. Unfortunately, Urs did not manage to get past him again, although he worked his way up one place to 2022.

Arnold Classic 2023 Results Classic Physique

1) Ramón Dino

2) Urs Kalecinski

3) Alex Cambronero

4) Mike Sommerfeld

5) Courage Opara

6) Junior Javorsky

7) Jason Brown