ON KENTUCKY DERBY WEEKEND - A MAN CALLED HOSS LEADS THE ORLANDO FIELD
Written by Peter McGough
01 May 2015
At the prejudging of the Europa contest staged in Orlando this afternoon (May 1st) it seems pretty clear that Fouad “Hoss” Abiad is leading the 15-man field. Another aspect that was pretty clear is that so many of the competitors missed their peak. In tandem with that several exhibited the distended belly syndrome, even though at the competitors meeting held 24 hours earlier head judge Lee Thompson warned that such pregnant pauses would be penalized.
Last year Abiad finished second to Branch Warren at the Europa Supershow in Dallas, but many observers saw him as the winner. In fact Fouad took ill during the show with a gall bladder problem and so he was done for 2014. This was his first contest since then and although he could have been a shade sharper his combination of size (particularly upper body) condition (hams were crazy) and fullness seemed too much for the other combatants.
Judging by the callouts the race for second, third and fourth is between Michael Lockett,Alex Fedorov and Pablo Ayala.
Locket, making his pro debut, was impressive, his unique muscle fiber composition clearly on view. He had deeper overall separation than Fouad but looked a little shallow in the back and the atrophy in his right quad, dwarfed by the left, was clearly evident.
Say it straight Alex Fedorov was friggin’ huge. His lat spread went on like a Ted Cruz filibuster speech, his delts and arms are cartoonish, but he was just too heavy and of course his underpar chest (caused by a serious pec tear in 2003) couldn’t be overlooked. If he could drop a few pounds and trim his midsection he could rise higher.
As for Ayala he didn’t make the Big Ramyish impact he did at last year’s Pro Bodybuilding Worldwide Championships. He’d streamlined his contours but that didn’t translate into contest condition. Daniel Toth was pushing the aforementioned four and seemed much lighter than last year (which made his waistline tighter) but again he didn’t nail contest condition, and it appeared he had ripped his right quad.
But as said previously a lot of the guys were off even the ones mentioned above (Abiad and Lockett being the exceptions), and guys like Marius Dohne and Vitaly Fateev were quite a way down from what they had delivered before.
One bright spark was Canada’s Ian Valliere who was making his pro debut. He brought to the stage a spectacular frame and good proportions. The only minus was his core (abs and lower back) which lacked detail.
The finals are at 2.30pm Saturday May 2 and I can guarantee that in this “Now you don’t see it, now you do” world of modern bodybuilding all these guys will be sharper. It’s only half time in the judging process so it will be interesting to see if any of the other fancied runners can catch Hoss down the home straight and cross the finishing line ahead of him.
Written by Peter McGough
01 May 2015
At the prejudging of the Europa contest staged in Orlando this afternoon (May 1st) it seems pretty clear that Fouad “Hoss” Abiad is leading the 15-man field. Another aspect that was pretty clear is that so many of the competitors missed their peak. In tandem with that several exhibited the distended belly syndrome, even though at the competitors meeting held 24 hours earlier head judge Lee Thompson warned that such pregnant pauses would be penalized.
Judging by the callouts the race for second, third and fourth is between Michael Lockett,Alex Fedorov and Pablo Ayala.
Locket, making his pro debut, was impressive, his unique muscle fiber composition clearly on view. He had deeper overall separation than Fouad but looked a little shallow in the back and the atrophy in his right quad, dwarfed by the left, was clearly evident.
Say it straight Alex Fedorov was friggin’ huge. His lat spread went on like a Ted Cruz filibuster speech, his delts and arms are cartoonish, but he was just too heavy and of course his underpar chest (caused by a serious pec tear in 2003) couldn’t be overlooked. If he could drop a few pounds and trim his midsection he could rise higher.
As for Ayala he didn’t make the Big Ramyish impact he did at last year’s Pro Bodybuilding Worldwide Championships. He’d streamlined his contours but that didn’t translate into contest condition. Daniel Toth was pushing the aforementioned four and seemed much lighter than last year (which made his waistline tighter) but again he didn’t nail contest condition, and it appeared he had ripped his right quad.
But as said previously a lot of the guys were off even the ones mentioned above (Abiad and Lockett being the exceptions), and guys like Marius Dohne and Vitaly Fateev were quite a way down from what they had delivered before.
One bright spark was Canada’s Ian Valliere who was making his pro debut. He brought to the stage a spectacular frame and good proportions. The only minus was his core (abs and lower back) which lacked detail.
The finals are at 2.30pm Saturday May 2 and I can guarantee that in this “Now you don’t see it, now you do” world of modern bodybuilding all these guys will be sharper. It’s only half time in the judging process so it will be interesting to see if any of the other fancied runners can catch Hoss down the home straight and cross the finishing line ahead of him.
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