The candidates of Mr World 2019 had a fun and emotional time at Tuloy Foundation where they had an audience with Founder Fr. Rockie Evangelista who served as an inspiration for all the guys who now look up to him as a role model to follow in their respective countries. Ms Julia Morley of MWO plus Miss World 2018 Vanessa Ponce de León and Miss World 2016 Stephanie del Valle joined in the activity as well.
Below are more photos from the event.
69 Official Candidates were presented to members of the media in the Mr World 2019 Press Presentation at the Versailles Tent of Novotel Manila Araneta Center. Two more delegates will arrive tomorrow to complete the final roster of 71.
Standouts are the representatives of Mexico, Spain, Argentina, Thailand, England, Dominican Republic, Austria (who’s half-Flipino), Kenya, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and the Philippines.
Julia Morley of MWO attended the event along with reigning Miss World Vanessa Ponce de Leon and former titleholder Stephanie del Valle.
Below is a video of their introductions:
We all know by now that Miss Philippines Katarina Rodriguez was unable to win the Round 2 Head—To-Head Challenge for Miss World 2018. She was edged out by Miss Venezuela Veruska Ljubisaljevic. And it all boiled down to going overtime with the answers.
Katarina overspent her minute and a half and that costed her a precious demerit that allowed the Venezuelan to upend her sincere efforts to defend her now-viral BWP Advocacy.
Megan Young voted for Katarina, Stephanie went for Veruska, while Manushi went against Katarina due to going overtime.
Still, Katarina is not exactly back to Square One because there are talks that she is a strong contender for the Beauty With A Purpose Fast-Track.
At any rate, there is a new voting procedure for Miss World 2018 that will be implemented starting December 7:
New Voting Procedure
Miss World will have another round of voting that will begin at 7 pm this December 7 (Friday). The voting will last for 24 hours in time for the coronation on November 8.
For this round of voting, it is important for candidates to have robust support from other continents.
Voting will be on a per continent basis such that the country with the highest vote in each continent will get the continent’s one vote.
Each continent gets one vote in electing the next Miss World.
In other words, aside from the seated judges who each get a vote in determing Miss World 2018, the six continents will act as six additional judges each with a single vote.
Here’s the catch: Only the votes casted for the soon-to-be-determined Top 5 will be counted from the 24-hour voting window.
How exactly does this work?
When (not if) Miss Philippines Katarina Rodriguez makes the Top 5 and she scores the highest vote among the Top 5 countries in Asia, Africa, Carribean and Europe for example. She will automatically get their 1 vote each to get 4 votes on top of the votes that she will get from the judges.
Voting platforms are still: (a) Miss World Website, (b) Miss World Philippines Facebook Page, (c) Mobstar and (d) Model Power Live
Katja with one of the students from Mission Hills School in Haikou
Yesterday’s return of Miss World Organization (MWO) President Julia Morley to the country shows how important an ally the Philippines and Miss World Philippines Organization is to her group. Along with Miss World 2017 Manushi Chhilar and Miss World 2016 Stephanie del Valle, they met with members of the media in a Press Conference held at Impressions Restaurant of Maxims Hotel in RW Manila earlier. The two beautiful titleholders will serve as judges during the Miss World Philippines 2018 Finals this coming Sunday, with their “boss” overseeing the progress of her BWAP projects with the Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center and the Milk Bank Program started by Laura Lehmann plus her other charity causes here.
The three gamely (and extensively) answered all the questions fielded in by the attending invitees. They will be staying for a few more days before going back to London.
Meanwhile, Manushi and Stephanie will conduct personal interviews with the MWP candidates to see who among them deserve to be considered as the country’s representative to Miss World 2018 in Sanya, China.
Miss World 2016 Top 5 Finalist Catriona Gray of the Philippines
Stephanie reacts to winning Miss World 2016 with Catriona to her right
What happened during the judges’ deliberations? With the answers given by the Top 5, it was crystal-clear that Miss Philippines delivered a reply that would have easily made her soar to the crown. Or were their reactions on the reverse that giving out a solid presentation of her views on why she should be the next Miss World made them feel as if she is too good to be true? Were the placements of two ladies from the Carribean in the Top 3 courtesy of an influential judge in the panel? And let us not go to the 3rd place finish of Miss Indonesia because her BWAP (Beauty With A Purpose) win could have justified that ranking.
In the eyes of the Filipinos, Catriona is a clear winner. If the decision-makers preferred someone else ahead of her (regardless of the Q&As), then it’s a matter out of our hands. The verdict has been announced, and Puerto Rico just claimed its 2nd Miss World victory.
More than Catriona, my heart goes out to the legion of solid fans and supporters who worked hard to back her up every step of the way. I salute all of you. The feeling of sadness and disappointment may take awhile to be erased, but it will heal soon enough. It’s Christmas Week after all. 🙂
PS. A concerned US-based reader sent me this observation. Take it with a grain of salt, or charge everything to experience if you will.
“Hi Norman, you don’t know me but for some reason I was able to read your blog because of my friends link. Anyhow I was there watching the event and I was at the back of the judges basically in the center of the stage . Julia was on my left and the Indonesian was on my right. When they announced the top 20 I can already see who is in the top ten because it was already listed and it was already typewritten or printed. Now it was weird Norman that they already have the list of top five the worst thing that I’ve observed all of the sheets was collected before the final question was asked. They knew already who is the winner by that time. Morley was very caring to that Indonesian judge because she instructed the assistant to place her on the very nice area which is the center of the stage.”
Miss World 2016 Stephanie Del Valle of Puerto Rico (Getty Images)
Stephanie reacts to winning Miss World 2016
Stephanie with her two runners-up from Dominican Republic and Indonesia
Stephanie del Valle of Puerto Rico is the 66th Miss World. She now succeeds Spain’s Mireia Lalaguna. Yaritza Reyes of the Dominican Republic was named 1st Runner-Up, with Natasha Manuela of Indonesia (who also won Beauty with a Purpose) getting 2nd Runner-Up.
Catriona Gray of the Philippines and Evelyn Njiambi of Kenya made up the remaining ladies in the Top 5.
The other candidates who placed in the Top 10 are Belgium, Brazil, China PR, USA, Korea and Mongolia (Fan Vote).
Congratulations to all the winners!
PS. I need to catch up on sleep now before I blog about my thoughts on the results
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