Badell Comeback; Fun at the TOC

Okay, so my pick to win the Atlantic City Pro, Marvelous Melvin Anthony, wasn’t so marvelous as he ended up way back in fourth. Let’s pass on that and say congrats to Gustavo Badell, who ended up with the victory.

I wasn’t in New Jersey, but from judging by the photos, the placings were fair: Badell, followed by Hidetada Yamagishi in second, Troy Alves in third, Anthony in fourth and Leo Ingram in fifth. Melvin, you get another shot at the Olympia a week from Friday; is there time to improve enough to crack the top 10?

Anyway, I was in town over the weekend, hosting Jon Lindsay’s Tournament of Champions in Culver City. Before the show Ron “Yogi” Avidan, a (slowly) roving correspondent for www.hardbody.com, asked me to conduct some video interviews with Figure Olympia ‘bound Gina Aliotti, Sonia Gonzales and Kristi Tauti.

As you will see if you view the Aliotti conversation, I tab Gina to win it all at the Olympia in less than two weeks; after finishing second the last two seasons, and with defending champ Jenn Gates sitting this one out due to her recent pregnancy, I say the 25-year-old from San Diego moves into the winner’s circle.

Moments earlier, Avidan dared me to pose down Jerome (Hollywood) Ferguson and David Hughes at the Bodybuilding.com booth; since I was nattily attired in my suit and tie, I agreed to the request. I say it’s a draw. End of discussion.

I was at the podium in July when Rowdy Rusconi of Fresno, CA won the Novice Overall in his very first show at the San Jose Championships. Didn’t take a rocket scientist to see the thick 29-year-old could have a bright future in the industry. Rowdy was a tad disappointed when he came in fourth at the Los Angeles Championships a week later, so it was redemption time at the TOC. Look for him to step on a National level stage in the next year or two.

Kudos to Men’s Novice Overall champ Jeff Sheflet, Women’s winner Dallas Malloy, Figure titlist Jodi Marchuck, and the best in Bikini, Victoria Kirsonova. The latter is quite a story; she was born and raised in Russia, and first came to the United States a decade back as a member of the Ringling Brothers circus, riding a horse in the  "Medieval Times" segment of the show.

Malloy won my Junior Cal in 2007, and is a personal trainer and actress. She’s good, on both stages. Check out the clip of her performance on the TV show “Eli Stone”, as well as her other roles, past and upcoming, on her website, www.dallasmalloy.com.        

Back to the Olympia; Silveo Samuel, this year’s IRON MAN Pro winner and 7th place finisher the past two Olympia’s, guest posed. He’s about 10-12 pounds of water out at this stage, which is to be expected. Naturally, I tried to get him to predict a finish, but Samuel didn’t fall for it. He just said, “I hope they (judges) go by the bodies they see, not just the names.” Me too.

With the usual great backstage crew leading the way, I was able to get the show over a tad before 9:30 pm; Yogi then conned me into doing two more interviews, with Rusconi and Kirsonova, which should be up on this site soon. Figured he would at least pop for dinner at the local IHOP after.

Fat (no pun intended) chance. I do all the interviews, gratis, Yogi gets another free meal, and Isaac “Hardbody” Hinds, the new-age Shawn Ray, gets several stupendous LT video interviews up on his site while he was partying back home in Greenwood Village, CO.

Ok Isaac, time has run out. Bring the credit card to ‘Vegas. Four days takes up a lot of grubbing. You’re fortunate I’ve just started  my diet. Yes, again. You’re luckier than the Broncos were today. Well, almost. Nothing beats that ending.

I’m out.