Pro/Am Contests Blog

We’ve got a great new wallpaper available here on Bodybuilding.com of 2007 All-Star Pro Fitness Winner Tanji Johnson.

This great photo was taken by noted photographer Isaac Hinds, a loyal BodySpace member and great friend. 

Download your free copy, along with other 2007 Olympia-qualified competitors, from our Olympia Wallpapers page!  And don’t forget to also check out the BodySpace Olympia Blog while you’re at it!

The NPC Arkansas State show was a great show, held in conjunction with the IFBB All-Star Classic.

If you competed in this show and are looking for pics, look no further! The photos are now available for viewing and purchase at photos.liftstudios.com.

2007 All-Star Pro Winner Tanji Johnson!

Your Full Results from the 2007 All-Star Classic
1   Johnson, Tanji  
2   Lohre, Julie
3   Grishina, Oksana
4   Wickham, Sandra
5   Villa Nelson, Amy
6   Worsfold, Stephanie
7   Elias, Kendra  
8   Groshek, Susan
9   Daughtry, Allison    
10   Theison, Michelle
11   Kimes, Lori
12   Murray, Bridgette
13   Cassety, Jennifer
14   Ward, Sandie

Prejudging has concluded for the NPC Arkansas state show and the IFBB All Star Classic shaped up to be a good one. This morning the panel of five judges took a look at the IFBB fitness pros in their one and two piece, along with their 45 second routines. Based on the callouts your top three in the phyisque rounds are Tanji Johnson, Julie Lohre and the surprise - Susan Groshek. I say surprised because Susan competed against these same women at the Europa but wasn’t in the top callouts. Keep in mind this is a different panel of judges and the results may very because of 1) what the judges have to judge on stage and 2) this panel of judges may see something different than the show prior. I commented  after the Europa that I thought Susan has great shape and she does. The judges agreed with me. LOL! Just kidding. No big surprise on Tanji and Julie being in the top callouts as they too have great shape. Tanji is improved from Dallas and is tighter than that show. Still a bit soft for my liking but that’s just me. I personally like the shape and conditioning on Julie Lohre. She has good stage presence, nice color, good physique and she’ll be battling it out with Tanji. Tanji was the winner at this show last year and Julie is hungry for her first pro win. It will come down to the routine rounds. Whoever nails their routines will find themselves in the winner circle. Speaking of routines, Susan’s 45-second routine was just so-so. I think this could hurt her in the overall placings at the night show.

What about the rest of the pack? The top three qualify for the Olympia. Tanji is already qualified as is Julie, with her placing at the West Palm Beach show last fall. That leaves one spot up for grabs and who it will be is anyone’s guess. After the physique rounds it was clearly Susan. There were a number of competitors, in my opinion, who had better 45 second routines. I sang the praises of Oksana before this show and anyone who sees her routines will agree with me. In the routine rouns I had Oksana first, Julie Lohre second and Tanji in third. Depending on where the judges had Oksana you could see her battling it out for that third position. Amy Villa-Nelson may have a thing to two to say about that. Amy looked better than she did at the Europa and was definitely in the top 5 for physiques at this show. Oksana improved on her callouts and presented a fuller look to her physique. It appeared as though she was a bit out of her elment to me. I say that because her posing was different, it was better and more what the judges were looking for however in that I think she lost some of her flair that made her stand out in Dallas. Her transitions in Dallas we flawless and she appeared very polished at the Europa. Here she still looks very, very good but not as comfortable in her posing. She’ll find her a happy medium and the slightly softer but fuller looks suits her well. When comparing Oksana to Julie and Tanji her weakness is exposed - that being her taper especially from the back. I had Oksana in 5th in the physique rounds. She should be in the top 3 for her routines but will it be enough to propel her into an Olympia birth? Amy Villa-Nelson’s routine was good however she injured her knee in the process. She told me she had hurt it at the Europa and it was bothering her, she reaggravated it here. If she can pull off her routine tonight she might find herself in that third spot, however my gut tells me she is going to be thinking about it and trying to favor it too much and not give us her best performance. We shall see and I hope it doesn’t hold her back. Sandra Wickham and Stephanie Worsfold both received favorable callouts. Sandra’s routine could and should keep her in the top five at this show. Kendra Elias is on the bubble as well and has a nice routine. Bridgette Murray brings amazing gymnastics and one of the best routines to the stage, however her physique isn’t quite there in terms of conditioning. If she nails her conditioning at a pro show, watch out it could be something special.

It’s too close to call what the top five will be and it will come down to the routines tonight. The fans are in for a treat with some of these routines. Watch out for Sandra’s incredible kicks and toe touches…Bridgette’s amazing gymnastics…Tanji’s high energy…Julie Lohre’s strength moves…Kendra’s insane flexibility and last but certainly not least the performance by Oksana.

As our shuttle van was leaving the airport; security was blocking off a road, but we didn’t think anything off it. Apparently there was a suspicious bag in the airport shutting down the national airport for a bit. Story from local Little Rock news…

The Little Rock National Airport has reopened after being closed this afternoon.

TSA spokesperson Chuck Polk says the airport was evacuated for about 20 min after a suspicious package was in the checked baggage at the Delta security check point.

Little Rock police, fire and bomb squad were called to the scene. From what we are told they are still there investigating the suspicious package.

TSA did not evacuate the passengers who were boarding planes.  Planes were still able to leave but they did keep airplanes from coming in during the evacuation..

Yeeeeaaa Buddy…After a couple hour flight delay and a turtled-paced shuttle service I have arrived at the Peabody Hotel in Little Rock. The hotel is quite nice and I won’t hold the slow shuttle service against them as I think everything is a little slower down here in Arkansas. Don’t get me wrong, great people and more y’alls being thrown around than a horse shoe tournament but not a NY state of mind. It’s fairly warm, at least compared to Denver weather and no rain storms taking place, which is always a bonus. The rooms are very spacious and CLEAN. When you travel as much as I do to these shows, little things like a clean hotel become important things. One would assume the hotel would always be clean but not so much ’tis the case. Any whoo, the NPC check-in and weigh-in begins at 6pm Central time and the IFBB Fitness begins at 8pm for them to check-in.

Bridgette Murray is sporting some guns as she walked through the airport and hotel lobby. She smoked her head getting into the shuttle van, good thing the guy warned us to watch our heads when we got OUT of the van. LOL! I saw Amy Villa-Nelson sans wig in the lobby. That’s about all the celebrity fitness spotting that has taken place thus far.

I am off to scope out some photoshoot locations as I have two shoots schedule with fitness pros on Sunday. It looks like there are some cool spots near a river, walking distance from the hotel.

Stay tuned throughout the weekend as I update you on the happenings of this weekend’s show. Chad Nicholls and his wife, past Ms. Olympia, Kim Chizevsky appear to be poised to putting on a great NPC Arkansas State show in conjunction with the IFBB ALL-STAR Fitness Classic.

The IFBB All-Star Pro Fitness competition is being held this weekend in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA.

Here, courtesy of Lift Studios’ Isaac Hinds, is a tentative competitor list (as of yesterday):

Cassety, Jennifer - USA
Daughtry, Allison - USA
Elias, Kendra - USA
Grishina, Oksana - Russia
Groshek, Susan - USA
Johnson, Tanji - USA
Kimes, Lori - USA
Lohre, Julie - USA
Murray, Bridgette - USA
Theison, Michelle - USA
Villa Nelson, Amy - USA
Ward, Sandie - USA
Wickham, Sandra - Canada
Worsfold, Stephanie - Canada

Note: list last updated 8/24/2007.

My predictions?  Tanji to win, followed by Julie, Oksana, Amy, and Kendra - in that order.  =)

*Show - 2007 NPC Arkansas State Body Building, Fitness & Figure Championships & 2007 IFBB All-Star Pro Fitness Championships
    
*Date - Saturday, August 25, 2007 (both events will be held in their entirety on this date) - However, there will be an early weigh-in from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. on Friday at the Robinson.  The IFBB All-Star Pro Check-in and Athlete meeting will be held on Friday evening at 8:00 p.m.

*Show Times - Pre-judging:  10:30 a.m. - Evening Finals:  6:30 p.m.

*Location - Robinson Center Music Hall, Markham at Broadway, Little Rock, AR

*Host Hotel - Peabody Hotel - 501-906-4000

*Ticket information - Tickets are only available through Ticketmaster - www.ticketmaster.com or by calling ticketmaster at 501-975-7575.

*Special Guest Poser - IFBB Pro - Gunter Schlierkamp

Competitor list to follow soon. I will be at the show as the official NPC photographer. Check back for more information.