2023 Orlando Pro Results
The 2023 Orlando Pro is now in the history books, and there was an upset. Phil Clahar scored his first professional win by defeating pre-contest favorite Hassan Mostafa. Besides the surprise victory, bodybuilding fans and some athletes got to learn a new lesson about how contest scoring works. Before we get into that, the top five finishers in the contest are listed below.
- Phil Clahar
- Hassan Mostafa
- Stan de Longeaux
- Emmanuel Alvarez
- Chris DiDomenico
If you were to look at the scorecards after prejudging, then you saw that Mostafa was ahead of Clahar during that round. Most fans may have believed that the show was over at that point. Fast forward to the finals, and the placings were switched. Clahar made improvements while Mostafa appeared to not bring the same version of his physique to the stage. Thus, Clahar was placed first at the end of the round. This resulted in a tie on the overall scores.
So, what happens in the event of a tie score? Written on the bottom of the scorecard was the phrase “tie broken by relative placing.” What this means is that the athlete who won the final round of the show was awarded with the higher placing. This has happened in other shows this season for lower placings, but it hasn’t decided a win in 2023 until now. Since Clahar won the final, which is still scored, he was given the victory and Mr. Olympia qualification.
This could serve as a lesson to people that follow bodybuilding that just because one athlete is ahead on the prejudging round, it doesn’t mean the show is over. Both rounds should be considered, which is exactly what the judges did here. While Clahar may have wanted a clear victory in both rounds, a win is a win in the IFBB Pro League.
As for Mostafa, this is his second straight runner-up finish of this year. He was also second to Iain Valliere in the Toronto Pro. Mostafa was the defending champion of this show, and he likely wanted to win this one to wrap up that Olympia qualification so he could prepare for his return to Orlando in November. However, he will now have to find another show to enter, such as the Mr. Big Evolution contest, which will take place on July 9th in Portugal. Only contest champions move on to the Olympia this season.
The rest of the top five feature a combination of popular and lesser-known names. Stan de Longeaux, better known as “Stanimal,” scored his first top three finish as an Open competitor at this contest, while Emmanuel Alvarez and Chris DiDomenico both broke into the top five. That could serve as motivation to get back onstage in future contests this season. No Canadian competitors were in this show.
Make sure you stick with Muscle Insider for all the latest updates on news and developments throughout the 2023 season.