Just wanted to give special praise and recognition to all of my friends who competed in the USA Championships over the weekend.  Julia Aragon was in my opinion the star of the entire field as she pulled off a pro card on her first try at a national level show and just her second NPC show ever.  Geez, talk about hitting the jackpot on your first spin … LOL.  Anh Jung, my good friend Jea's wife, finished in the top 10 of her bikini class (Class A), but I honestly thought she should have placed much, much higher.  I just don't understand the judging these days.  Anh does not have the common "Y" shape that many of the girls have, which means that she actually has curves to her tiny frame.  Initially, I thought that not having that "Y" shape was what doomed her.  However, after seeing the overall winner, I am not so sure.  She was in great shape and should be very proud of her performance … I certainly am proud of her.

As a whole I thought the judging was decent on the bodybuilding side.  I just wished that the competitors were judged more thoroughly … just not enough comparisons.  There was actually a guy (Anh Nguyen) that was in the second call-outs that finished in the top 5, which was a weird occurrence since I would have expected him to be side by side with the rest of the top 5 in some comparison shots.  This never happened to my dismay.  Anh looked massive, but he may have been knocked for not being conditioned enough.  I don't think Al Auguste should have bested Pete Ciccone for the light-heavyweight crown.  Pete was more conditioned and muscular than Al in my opinion.  Knowing the competitor that Pete is, I am sure he has already booked his flight for Hot-lanta (Atlanta, GA) and the 2010 NPC Nationals.  Along with the new faces, I also see a lot of familiar faces.  Dan Decker, Manny Torres, Danny Hester, Jesse Sabater … to name a few.  I can almost feel their frustrations as I have been on the outside looking in, while someone else basks in my limelight.  Keep your heads up!  Reflect, accept what you did wrong, and redesign another plan.  Before you know it, you will be in the heat of battle again.  

After perusing the entire Flexonline.com coverage of the USA's, I really feel that many guys absolutely missed out on a grand opportunity at stealing a national championship.  Why do I say this?  The field was pretty weak in my opinion.  "Whatever happened to conditioning?," was a question that kept coming up as I scrolled through seemingly endless pages of contest pictorials.  I hope the 2010 NPC Nationals will contain competitors who actually want to come in and impress.  Come one, come all … the fields are literally wide open for the taking.