Roelly Winklaar's Big Finnish - Nordic Pro 2014 Report
Roelly's Big Finnish
2014 Nordic Pro Report - Rockel Overlooked
There was a distinctly end of season feel, about this contest, it being the sixth open men’s pro show in the past three weeks, with many of the competitors doing several legs of that circuit. In fact Roelly Winklaar, he of the massive arms and grimacing grin, was the only one to do all six shows, which incidentally sees him win the IFBB’s frequent flyer award, which is nothing to do with developing the pecs. The battling Dutchman’s record this last 22 days reads: Mr. Olympia (12th), Arnold Europe (5th), Dubai (3rd), Prague (4th), San Marino (4th) Finland (1st) So for him the phrase, “It’s Not Where You Start It’s Where You Finnish”, seems appropriate grammatically and geographically.
The line up included a host of Europeans who had not competed this year. What it did not include was the duo of Dexter Jackson and Shawn Rhoden, who according to promoter and all-round great guy, K.P. Ourama, had promised to compete but withdraw after last weekend’s exploits. Their absence was a big blow to K.P. and the 2,000 Scandinavian fans in attendance who had expected to see these two top six finishers from the Olympia.
So kudos to marathon man Winklaar for surviving the tour, taking this final leg and a 2015 Mr. Olympia berth, but it took some figuring out to see how he came out ahead of Steve Kuclo and particularly Ronny Rockel.
Roelly was not on at the Olympia, and although he got better during the middle part of the tour he faded here and looked somewhat softish, with anomalies around the nipples seeming to be ever more prominent.
Steve Kuclo has a God-given X-frame with great proportions, but needs more back and chest thickness. Still he was in much better condition than Roelly.
But the real surprise was the fourth place finish of Ronny Rockel who had the most complete look (in terms of proportionate bodypart development from head-to-toe and front to back) and by far the hardest condition. So the most complete and hardest conditioned bodybuilder in the contest was fourth? A head scratcher for the ages.
Apart from that (like in “But how did you enjoy the play Mrs. Lincoln?”) this was a great comeback of sorts for Rockel. In late 2012 he learned he had Type-2 Diabetes and his results in early 2013 were disappointing. The German dropped out of competition for 18 months or so returning with 10th at last weeks Prague Pro and 9th in San Marion 24 hours later. So congrats to him and commiserations for not getting the result he deserved.
*Special thanks to Anne from the MD forum for providing the pictures*
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