Tag Archives: Miss Earth 2011

Olga Alava Vargas: the Earth is her stage

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Miss Earth 2011 Olga Alava Vargas of Ecuador (Photo credit: Bruce Casanova of OPMB Worldwide)

Mother Earth's muse for the next twelve months, Olga is. (Photo credit: Bruce Casanova of OPMB Worldwide)

When Olga Alava Vargas was crowned Miss Earth 2011 last December 3, she made Ecuador doubly prouder since her compatriot Ma. Fernanda Cornejo was also successful in clinching the Miss International 2011 victory almost a month earlier. Two grand slam titles in one year is impressive, especially for a country that has not figured out well for the past decades.

From the time the girls started arriving for the pageant, Olga stood out as one of the favorites. She may not have the superlatives to back up her bid, but one thing going in her favor is consistency. She was always beautiful. She was always smiling. She was always ready and able to take part in all the environmental pre-pageant activities. She was always up on her toes mingling with everyone. And she never complained. And on pageant night, she showed that she is no cookie-cutter candidate. She displayed sincere happiness everytime she made the cut from the top 16 all the way to Final 4 and the crown itself. The final Q&A was a clincher after she spoke in limited English (instead of Spanish) and was still able to put her message across with clarity. After the coronation, practically all competitors (and the rest of the Earth) were happy with her win.

Below is an excerpt from an article written by Armin Adina in the Philippine Daily Inquirer:

Saving Mother Earth

Alava said “all of us deserve to win.” She invited her fellow candidates to help her in her mission for the environment. “We are all here for a purpose and we have to continue working for it,” she said.

The Ecuadorian beauty sees her crown as “a tool to help save Mother Earth.”

With Olga’s fondness for Asia, I’m pretty sure she will be very visible in the region. It would be safe to say that her reign will be a productive one since she can smoothly combine her efforts for Mother Earth in Ecuador & South America and in this part of the world.

Good luck and God Bless, Olga! ;-)

The fall and RISE of Athena Mae Imperial in Miss Earth 2011

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Athena falling on the stage during the opening number of Miss Earth 2011.

If you keenly watched the opening number of Miss Earth 2011, you will have noticed one of the candidates doing more than just a Miriam Quiambao when she fell on the stairs leading to centerstage. The girl happens to be Miss Philippines Athena Mae Imperial. And being the real trouper, she quickly regained her poise, stood up and continued to blend with the choreography as if nothing happened. In fact, the slight incident was easily forgotten as Miss Philippines made the cut to the Top 16, sashayed her way to the Top 8 Semifinalists, elegantly glided to the Final 4 and ended with the Miss Earth-Water 2011 crown all in one night.

Athena Mae Imperial standing tall as Miss Earth-Water 2011 (Photo credit: Bruce Casanova of OPMB Worldwide)

Looking back, Athena Mae Imperial is destined to place well in Miss Earth 2011 and contribute her share in the splendid international performance of our Filipina beauty queens this year. Her kind of beauty may not sit well with some quarters, but we cannot deny the fact that she is one brainy lady who can express herself with a lot of sense. The Miss Earth-Water 2011 title is a vindication, and while some pageant fans are against her inclusion in the Final 4 (even the Top 8), we have to accept the fact that she performed well and made our country proud in the pageant.

At this point, Athena can help Miss Earth 2011 Olga Alava Vargas in all the environment-related causes lined up for the winners in the next number of months. Time to move on and focus on what is more important, i.e., joining hands in protecting Mother Earth. ;-)

Miss Earth 2011 is Olga Alava Vargas of Ecuador!

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Mother Earth has a new muse, and she is Olga Alava Vargas of Ecuador.

Just awhile back, Miss Earth 2011 culminated in her crowning during glittering rites held at the UP Theatre. She is the first Ecuadorian to win the title, as she bested 84 other delegates along the way.

Comprising the quartet of elements for 2011 are: Driely Bennettone of Brazil, Miss Air; Athena Mae Imperial of the Philippines, Miss Water and Caroline Medina of Venezuela, Miss Fire.

Making it to the top 8 are the representatives of Zimbabwe, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Crimea and Mexico.

Congratulations to all the winners!

(Photo of the winners courtesy of Bruce Casanova of OPMB Worldwide)

Who will win Miss Earth 2011? Here are my picks…

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Tonight, Miss Earth 2011 will be crowned. Out of the 85 delegates, I found some difficulty trimming them down to just the Top 16 because there are around 20 ladies I’m seeing as potential semifinalists. at any rate, here are my choices presented in alphabetical order. Afterwards, I will be naming my Top 8 en route to predicting who this year’s elemental beauties will be.

My Personal Choices for Top 16:

Miss Australia, Deedre Zibara

Miss Brazil, Driely Bennettone

Miss Chinese-Taipei, Cherry Liu

Miss Colombia, Andrea De Vivo Creazzo

Miss Czech Republic, Sarka Cojocarova

Miss Ecuador, Olga Alava Vargas

Miss India, Hasleen Kaur

Miss Japan, Tomoko Maeda

Miss Mexico, Casandra Becerra

Miss Paraguay, Nicole Huber

Miss Puerto Rico, Agnes Benitez

Miss Scotland, Amanda Quinn

Miss Sweden, Renate Cerljen

Miss Switzerland, Irina de Giorgi

Miss Tanzania, Nelly Kamwelu

Miss Venezuela, Caroline Medina

Andadditionally now, just to be fair….let me name the 4 other ladies I so want to include in my Top 16 but ran out of slots. Any of these four can spoil things for one or two of the above. They are Miss New Zealand Alexandra Grace Scott, Miss Philippines Athena Mae Imperial, Miss Korea E-Seul Kim and Miss Crimea Nina Astrakhantseva.

My Personal Choices for Top 8:

1. Miss Australia, Deedre Zibara
2. Miss Brazil, Driely Bennettone
3. Miss Colombia, Andrea De Vivo Creazzo
4. Miss India, Hasleen Kaur
5. Miss Japan, Tomoko Maeda
6. Miss Scotland, Amanda Quinn
7. Miss Sweden, Renate Cerljen
8. Miss Venezuela, Caroline Medina

Finally, my guesses for this year’s elemental beauties and also the Final 4 would be:

1. Miss Brazil, Driely Bennettone
2. Miss India, Hasleen Kaur
3. Miss Sweden, Renate Cerljen
4. Miss Venezuela, Caroline Medina

One of these four outstanding delegates would make a wonderful Miss Earth 2011. If Miss Brazil wins, then it will be their 3rd crown. If Miss India takes it all the way, it will be their 2nd and an exciting back-to-back following Nicole Faria’s victory last year. If Miss Venezuela ends up on top, it will be their 2nd and the first for Osmel Sousa’s group. Finally, Renate Cerljen could give Sweden its’ first Miss Earth win and a long-time coming for Europe in the pageant. ;-)

Job well done, Nicole Faria!

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Miss Earth 2010 Nicole Faria will come full circle tomorrow night when she crowns her successor at the UP Theatre. It was a meaningful reign for the beautiful Indian lass who wowed everyone last year in Nha Trang, Vietnam where she became the first representative from her country to win the Miss Earth title. From that point, she took part in a good number of environment-related activities, pursued Mother Earth-friendly causes and even spearheaded a flood relief operation in Thailand a couple of months back.

As big sister to the 85 delegates this year, she displayed  an affable and natural warmth while discretely scouting each one of them to see who deserves to win the 2011 crown.

The big question is: will she be crowning another Indian? Not a far-fetched possibility because Hasleen Kaur is also an outstanding beauty queen. We’ll see what happens! ;-)

(Photo credit: Bruce Casanova of OPMB Worldwide)

The Miss Earth 2011 National Costumes I like

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The Miss Earth 2011 National Costume Competition was recently held at Acacia Hotel in Filinvest Alabang. All 85 contenders glided the runway in their best traditional attires and I just had to select the five ladies who wore them best. And they are as follows:

Miss Japan Tomoko Maeda wore my pick for Best National Costume. A very NOW geisha!

Miss India Hasleen Kaur wore a very fashionable Indian garb with colors that veer away from the usual earth tones in the past. This is my choice for 2nd best.

Call it showstopping. Casandra Becerra wore a visually glorious costume that is not at all unusual with beauty queens from Mexico. My 3rd best.

Miss Chinese Taipei Cherry Liu is an oriental goddess in this creation. My 4th best.

Andrea De Vivo Creazzo wore a Colombian national costume that is both colorful and eye-catching. The design is simple, but the impact is more eye candy than drag. My 5th best.

I wanted to concentrate on costumes that have strong themes of Mother Earth and the like. But since very few came up with environmentally-inspired ones, I decided to judge the same based on usual standards.

Watch out for my Miss Earth 2011 predictions this coming Saturday. :-)

All images above are courtesy of Bruce Casanova of OPMB Worldwide.

Vote for 2011 Miss Earth Photogenic!

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You have up to tomorrow, November 30, to vote for Miss Earth Photogenic in this year’s edition of the pageant. You can cast your pick by clicking HERE or one of the images above.

One of the 85 hopefuls will be getting this special award on pageant night this coming Saturday, December 3, at UP Theatre so express your support now! ;-)

Miss Earth 2011: Meet the Press

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courtesy of mabuhaybeauties1

The ladies of Miss Earth 2011

Miss India Hasleen Kaur

Miss Sweden Renate Cerljen

Miss Japan Tomoko Maeda

Miss Ukraine Khrystyna Oparina

Miss Venezuela Caroline Medina

Miss Paraguay Nicole Huber

Miss Mexico Casandra Becerra

Miss Hungary Dora Szabo

Miss Netherlands Jill Duijves

Miss Thailand Niratcha Tungtisanont

Miss Brazil Driely Bennettone

Miss Puerto Rico Agnes Benitez

The Miss Earth 2011 Official Candidates were presented to the Press at the poolside of Oakwood Premier in Ortigas Center. Wearing their eye-catching two-piece swimwears in colors of pink, fuchsia, yellow, orange, green and blue, the ladies paraded in the venue holding plant seedlings representing the main cause of the pageant – 2011 being the International Year of the Forests.

Particular standouts are Hasleen Kaur of India, Caroline Medina of Venezuela, Agnes Benitez of Puerto Rico, Renate Cerljen of Sweden, Driely Bennettone of Brazil and Tomoko Maeda of Japan. Miss Philippines Athena Mae Imperial is all-out in showing warm hospitality to all her co-candidates. She may be one of the shortest in the batch but always stands tall when blending her naturally cordial self with everyone.

From this point, the delegates will head to a Miss Earth caravan that will bring them around Northern Luzon for various environmental activities that should strengthen their individual resolves in protecting Mother Earth. Some of the preliminaries will also be conducted during this trip before returning to Manila for the coronation night on December 3.

All images courtesy of OPMB Worldwide‘s Melvin Sia.

Miss Earth 2011: First impression picks

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Driely Bennettone, Miss Brazil

Ashlea Moor, Miss Canada

Hasleen Kaur, Miss India

Tomoko Maeda, Miss Japan

Miando Ratsimiahotrariva, Miss Madagascar

Jill Duijves, Miss Netherlands

Nicole Huber, Miss Paraguay

Amanda Quinn, Miss Scotland

Rebecca Kim Lekse, Miss Slovenia

Irina de Giorgi, Miss Switzerland

Merve Saribas, Miss Turkey

Caroline Medina, Miss Venezuela

I know it’s too early to tell my favorites for Miss Earth 2011, but just based on post-arrival pictures during the welcome dinner hosted at the Carousel Mansion, I picked a dozen ladies I’m liking so far. There were already 62 candidates when these photos were taken. By now, the number should be already approaching the target 94 or so for this year’s edition.

India is right on track in vying for a second consecutive Miss Earth crown. Hasleen Kaur is a knockout stylish beauty. But Venezuela’s Caroline Medina is not letting her guards down. This gorgeous Latina looks good in pics, but projects even better in person (and could also be a Miss Congeniality contender based from early feedbacks). I can also single out Driely Bennettone of Brazil. This ever-smiling lady from Sao Paulo is living up to her pre-arrival hype. And one delegate from Africa I’m interested in so far is Miando Ratsimiahotrariva of Madagascar. She is simple but strikingly beautiful. Just like Merve Saribas of Turkey – another fascinating candidate. And I am also pleased with Japan’s bet. Tomoko Maeda is a head-turner alright.

Well, those are my impressions so far. And these are bound to change in the next few days or so. Let’s see how each one of them will shine all throughout the pre-pageant activities of Miss Earth 2011.

(All images above are courtesy of OPMB Worldwide‘s Bruce Casanova)

Driely Bennettone: Gunning for a 3rd Miss Earth crown for Brazil

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Miss Earth-Brazil 2011 Driely Bennettone is, quite simply, sensually exotic.

With a name like Driely Bennettone, you simply can’t ignore Brazil’s representative to Miss Earth 2011. The 22 year-old beauty from Sao Paulo stands a towering 1.84m (a shade above 6′) and works as a fashion model when she is not busy with her studies in Theatre Arts at the Faculdade de Administração de Empresas.

With Brazil being one of the most environmentally-involved countries in the world, it follows that their citizens are very much concerned with the preservation of Mother Earth. For Drielly, her platform consists of:

…” creating regular programs in schools that will involve taking care of Mother Earth. I would like schools to teach sustainability theories along with the usual subjects, like Math, Science and Language. With the youth of Brazil educated on environmental awareness, we our sector of sustainable growth will develop. We must get all citizens involved in protecting the environment, by educating them on the importance of nurturing nature, people and animals. If education begins when the citizens are young, then the reality of an eco-friendly society will be achieved faster.”

This Brazilian is one of the ladies to watch out for this year. I believe that she possesses the beauty, poise and sincere commitment that Priscila Meirelles and Larissa Ramos (both former Miss Earth winners from Brazil) have. Will she be the 3rd Brazilian to win the crown? ;-)