Tomorrow night at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas (around 10:00am Friday, Manila time), the Preliminaries of Miss Universe 2012 will officially take place. To say that this event is crucial would be an understatement. This is the make-or-break challenge for the 89 delegates because the Top 15 will be confidentially arrived at, courtesy of the prelims-dedicated judges. Only the 16th qualifier via the online voting will be known separately.
And so, on this “auspicious” date of December 12, 2012 (or 12-12-12 if you will), here now are the twenty (20) candidates I am expecting to perform well in both the swimsuit and evening gown rounds. Suffice it to say that they have their potential semifinal chances to lose, depending on how well they rack up high marks (or earn mediocre numbers) on the judges’ scoresheets.
Divided into five groups of four, they are:
1. Irene Esser, Venezuela
2. Bodine Koehler, Puerto Rico
3. Melinda Bam, South Africa
4. Janine Tugonon, Philippines
5. Elizabeta Burg, Croatia
6. Karina Gonzalez, Mexico
7. Tereza Chlebovska, Czech Republic
8. Renae Ayris, Australia
9. Gabriela Markus, Brazil
10. Carolina Aguirre, Ecuador
11. Olivia Culpo, USA
12. Lindsay Japal, Cayman Islands
13. Marcelina Zawadzka, Poland
14. Kimberley Leggett, Malaysia
15. Diana Avdiu, Kosovo
16. Andrea Huisgen, Spain
17. Hanni Beronius, Sweden
18. Farida Waller, Thailand
19. Ayako Hara, Japan
20. Ana Luisa Konig, Chile
The girls from 21st-25th on my pre-preliminaries selection – Laura Godoy of Guatemala, Talia Bennett of New Zealand, Marcelina Vahekini of Angola, Adrola Dushi of Albania and Ji Dan Xu of China – deserve quick mentions.
Let’s see who will come out stronger among these ladies, and who will falter along the way and allow another (un-cited) competitor to snatch her opportunity to enter the semis come December 19. 😉
P.S. This post is not my final predictions for MU 2012. A more concrete list will come out on the penultimate day of competitions.