FigureRX Contest Report: 2007 KentuckyMuscle Pro Figure
November 10, 2007
Our time at the KentuckyMuscle Pro was very exhausting, perhaps our busiest pro show yet, but
Team FigureRX has returned home and it's time to collect our thoughts about the weekend. The show itself was extremely well done, with three excellent guest posing routines, a good assortment of booths at the expo, and an excellent venue with all the necessary amenities in the immediate area. The athletes, press and VIPs were treated very well and the back stage area was well planned out and accessible. Next year we will need to remember that even though the bars are open until 4am or 5am, there is no food after 1am ... that led to two late night orders from the same delivery place! Generally speaking the pace of service at restaurants in the City of Louisville itself was a little bit slower too, but thankfully the show was so well planned out there were plenty of lengthy breaks. That meant there was no need to rush any meals and there was plenty of time to relax between components of the event.
NPC and IFBB judges are independent individuals who adhere to a set criteria when they are judging athletes and competitors. Sometimes that criteria changes, like the famous '20 percent (or was it 30?!?) less muscle' directive and we know the judges take all that into account and act accordingly. At
FigureRX, when we do contest reports or previews we're not necessarily in tune with the direction that the judges have received. So our preferences are just that, preferences that reflect what we like to see in the sport such as more muscle in the pro ranks.
On the same note, when we receive requests from NPC athletes asking for advice on how they can improve their physiques we turn it over to our trainers and they respond, and we have been fortunate enough to be helpful in many cases, but in the IFBB professional ranks the physique nuances are so small and the athletes so overwhelmingly deserving that giving advice is much more difficult and we suggest that everyone continue to listen to the feedback from judges and other experts.
So we want to be clear and up front that we have no political agenda we just call things like we see them, on to our contest coverage! We're here to have fun and to celebrate all the athletes in this great sport, from top to bottom, so let's get on with it ....
. We'll be doing photo coverage next year at the major NPC shows, but in the IFBB the coverage is already somewhat saturated (and we think a lot of people have stepped up to do more since we entered the fray) and so well done by web sites like
Bodysport and
HardFitness that we are focusing our efforts on mini videos of each competitor. We hope that everyone will enjoy what we have put together and as always we welcome feedback both good and bad!
FigureRX Spotlight Athletes Karen Mullarkey and Shelly Taucher
At
FigureRX we want to give our first acknowledgement to spotlight athlete
Karen Mullarkey, who returned to her home town for her pro debut. We think that Karen is well positioned to do well in 2008 and beyond because she has all the basic tools, including her overall shape and genetics, a stunning midsection, and overall physical beauty. As we mentioned in our pre-judging commentary she probably needs to put on a little bit more muscle to ascend the ranks but that's what the holidays and off season are for, right? We love Karen's attitude and the personality that she shows on stage. Click
HERE to see her
FigureRX contest video. The vidcaps are below.
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------------------------------------------LINK TO KAREN'S VIDEO
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--------------------------------------------------Karen Mullarkey
In the spirit of continuing to provide you with one stop coverage, we have also picked out the contest photos of Karen that we like best. These are from our friends who were sitting just to the right of us in the press row at Louisville, Juan Carlos Lopez of Hardfitness and Rick Lohre of Lohre Creative. We highly recommend taking a look at all of their superb work. Just turn off your pop-up blocker or hold down the Ctrl key and click below each photo to visit the hosting site.
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Our second spotlight athlete for the KentuckyMuscle Pro was Michigan's
Shelly Taucher, and we were very happy to see her place in the top ten!! Shelly stands out on stage for her height, muscularity and conditioning, and we particularly like her quads and arms. After she placed 14th in Atlantic City the feedback from the judges was that she was too big in her upper body relative to her legs, and at
FigureRX we feel that she was able to achieve that balance in Louisville without sacrificing much of her hard-earned size. Her rear conditioning, including back, glutes and hamstrings, was also considerably improved. Congratulations Shelly! Click
HERE to see her
FigureRX contest video.
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---------------------------------------------------Shelly Taucher
---------------------------------------------LINK TO SHELLY'S VIDEO
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Before we embark on our full coverage we want to recognize
Kate Shelby as well, who absolutely stunned us with her look on stage. Kate seems to have everything we look for in a figure physique, starting with the key focal points like capped delts, a tight etched midsection, and perfectly shaped legs. She also shows off an outstanding upper chest and superb quad-glute tie-ins. We felt that Kate's conditioning, tan and presentation were improved relative to her 14th place finish at the Europa this year. Kate is from Tennessee and she went pro at Nationals in 2004.
FigureRX hopes to see her on stage a lot in 2008 and hopefully she can recapture the placings that she received in 2006, which included 6th place at both the Europa and the Tournament of Champions. We are expecting her next competition to be in one of our favorite cities, Pittsburgh. Click
HERE to see Kate's
FigureRX contest video.
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-----------------------------------------------------Kate Shelby
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Now it's time to talk about the athletes at the top, and this show looked a lot like Sacramento with only a couple of competitors switched around and a surprise finish by a newcomer from the upstart 2007 pro card class. Southern girl
Michelle Flake competed a little closer to home this time and she won the title once again, and it is high praise indeed when we say that she reminds us of
Jenny Lynn. Michelle's win was unanimous but so was the second place score, which went to
FigureRX favorite
MaryJo Cooke. MaryJo continues to bring her A-game show after show and once we figure out her schedule for next year (post-Arnold) we're going to have to bring a bottle of champagne in anticipation of her first pro show win. Please take a look at the thumbnail shot of MaryJo second from the right in the strip of photos below, this is about as perfect as it gets in a rear shot for her body type as you can see the lat flare-outs and the superb delt tie-ins, along with incredible back definition.
Check out Michelle Flake's contest video
HERE, and it's a little longer than the others because it includes some footage of the first call-out comparisons. MJ's video and contest photos can also be found below - good luck at the Arnold girl we know you will be there and have a great debut!!
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------------------Michelle Flake--------------------------------------------MaryJo Cooke
------------LINK TO MICHELLE'S VIDEO-------------------------LINK TO MARYJO'S VIDEO
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Finishing in third place in her professional debut, in the surprise of the night for us, was
Brenda Smith from Ohio. She had been a very low key member of the outstanding 2007 pro card class but came out of nowhere and was conditioned beautifully (with no small thanks to Mike Davies, we're sure). Brenda looked particularly good in her two piece and she is now headed to the 2008 Olympia stage. She edged out
Darlina Brown, who we had pegged as a contender for the overall title when we saw her come out at the pre-judging. Darlina has presence, symmetry and a good amount of muscle which we know is a deadly combination on stage. But Darlina can walk away from this one with the knowledge that she looked incredible and she can also plan 2008 with an Olympia bid already in hand. And that's huge in a year that has seen a couple of shows disappear from the pro schedule, providing fewer opportunities to qualify. Videos of Brenda and Darlina will be here soon.
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------------------Brenda Smith--------------------------------------------Darlina Brown
We felt that one of our favorites,
Amy Peters, showed up in her best condition ever but ultimately ended up in 6th place.
FigureRX would have even moved her up a spot or two in Kentucky and we think she will ultimately find her way to the Olympia stage and achieve much more recognition in the pro ranks. Amy placed just behind
Sherie Salvadori, who took 5th. You can check out Amy's stage video here soon as well as an interview from Sunday morning after the show.
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------------------Sherie Salvadori--------------------------------------------Amy Peters
Liane Seiwald is another athlete who we feel came in at her best ever and was appropriately rewarded with a 7th place finish. Two of our three
FigureRX "most improved" athletes were right on her heels,
Jelena Abbou in 8th and
Cynthia Sharp in 9th. Jelena is simply one of the most stunningly beautiful competitors in figure and she is part of a wave of gorgeous competitors like
Paola Almerico and
Heather Green who are helping to redefine what it means to combine mass, beauty and mainstream marketability at the top (there are many others like Gina and Amanda as well). That said, we're not the first with our contest report for Kentucky and there has been much discussion about Jelena's placing here. At
FigureRX we would have liked to see her place higher and we ultimately believe that she should be elevated to the 2008 Arnold and Olympia stages, not just for her physique but also for the overall good of the sport. We agree with the frequent analysis that Jelena gets high call-outs because on her own she looks amazing, but then she doesn't fare quite as well in the comparisons. We fully understand the process, but without criticizing anybody (this is a sport of personal preferences within a range of criteria) we would like to see a different outcome that weighs Jelena's etched midsection and other strengths more significantly in her scores. In either case, few can doubt that Jelena vastly improved her conditioning at this show and came in looking her best ever.
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------------------Liane Seiwald--------------------------------------------Jelena Abbou
We hope that Florida girl
Cynthia Sharp was documenting her every move since the Palm Beach Pro, because whatever she did should be emulated! Palm Beach marked a return to the stage for Cynthia after a lengthy absence, and we can now view it is a practice run for Kentucky where she came in hard and conditioned to the core. As it says in our
FigureRX mission statement (see the "About Us" page), we think that things like size, hardness and quad separation should not be penalized by themselves but should be judged in conjunction with how those qualities fit into the overall package of muscle, symmetry, presentation and beauty. Cynthia is one of those athletes who looks better when she is lean and hard and we were pleased to see her rewarded with a top ten finish.
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----------------------------------------------------Cynthia Sharp
Another athlete who came in much improved from Palm Beach was
Pia Marlen Johnsen, who has to be recognized for some of the best legs on stage. Like our own
Danielle Rouleau, Pia carries herself with dancer-like grace and confidence on stage and has similar diamond shaped calves, tiny knee joints, and conditioned quads. Not only was she come in perfectly but she was also able to tone down her presentation just a little bit (less lipstick) and that improved her look as well. We think that Pia should move up next year as she competes in more shows.
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-------------------------------------------------Pia Marlen Johnsen
