Bodybuilding.com - The Gakic Bench Press Challenge: A Sad, Pathetic Show.

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At the 2005 Olympia expo at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas they held a new event called the Gakic Bench Press Challenge. How could something that sounds so cool become so horribly lame?

The Gakic Bench Press Challenge.

By: Bodybuilding Contests

At the 2005 Olympia expo at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas they held a new event called the Gakic Bench Press Challenge.

The start of the event was hosted by none other than Mr. Bob himself. After introducing why everyone was seated around the front of a stage (the reason I say this is because I was walking by random people at the expo and half of them did not know why they were sitting down in front of the stage. As soon as Bob introduced what was going on, at least half of them got up and left!), Bob introduced the new Flexxy Awards.

The Flexxy Awards

The Categories Were As Follows:

Athlete Of The Year (male and female)
Rookie Of The Year
Most Improved
Vanguard Award

Here Is Who Won:

Athlete Of The Year

Male:

Female:

Rookie Of The Year

Capriese Murray

Most Improved

Branch Warren

Vanguard Award

Shawn Ray

Click To Enlarge.
The First Ever Flexxy Winners.

The Flexxy Awards Video:

Windows Media (1.6 MB)
MPEG (5.7 MB)

If any of these are incorrect, send it to Will at will@bodybuilding.com. These were off the top of my head and it was a long weekend.

The Bench Press Competition

While there was much hype of this being a big new event they failed terribly to pull it together. Half of the guys on-stage knew there was a script but failed to stay with it and insisted on taking jabs at one another. Some of the highlights were:

Jeremy Freeman doing 54 reps.
Phil Heath doing 44.
Nasser doing 15. LOL

» Bench Press Video:

Click Play To Start The Video.

Jeremy Freeman.
Jeremy Freeman Does An Amazing 54 reps at 225 lbs.

Phil Heath Video:

Windows Media (1.2 MB)
MPEG (4.2 MB)

Nasser Video:

Windows Media (3.8 MB)
MPEG (13.4 MB)

Click To Enlarge.
Good Job There Buddy.

The Winners

Roland busted out 17 reps, so did the other guy. At first, the other host (Christen?) would not do it. He was all "I just had surgery and I can't bench heavy."

I think he is just a pretty boy cover model and 225 was his max, but he didn't want anyone to laugh at him. Well, we still did. Pretty boy did 17 reps (barely).

Then Roland could not take it any longer and just gets under the bench and busts out 15 more reps and is all trying to shove it in the other guys face. It was like watching two little kids argue about how their dad could kick their dad's ass. LOL

Overall Thoughts

Overall, I would give the show a 3.5 out of 10.

It was horribly orchestrated, unscripted with little to no humor. Half of the time you could not understand what was going on onstage. There was way too many people on stage at any given moment. The cameras were very distracting and blocked most (All in the name of a good shot).

Click To Enlarge.
Is This Bench Press Competition
Or A Camera Demonstration?

Hopefully they can get their act together next year and hire a new crew to run the events at the biggest bodybuilding show of the year (this includes the Mr. Olympia, Wildcard Showdown, Bench Press Competition, pre-judging, location of the shows). I have seen better bodybuilding shows in Boise, Idaho!

Check Out Some Of The Pics Here.

On the 3rd page you will find some shots of Gene Rychalk's failed bench press. I was in the front row at the very end (closest chair to him) and it was horrible! I wish Gene all the luck and I wouldn't be very surprised if we don't see him for awhile.

Gene Rychalk Video:

Windows Media (3.8 MB)
MPEG (13.4 MB)