In part I we discussed the past performances of Philippines, Colombia and Mexico – 3 former Spanish colonies who have come close but never captured the elusive blue crown which symbolizes Beauty with a Purpose. To recap here are the 3 countries’ most recent 1st runner-up finishes:
Colombia – 2002 – Natalia Peralta
Mexico – 2009 – Perla Beltran
Philippines – 2011 – Gwendoline Ruais
With the 2013 edition in the horizon, Miss World chose Indonesia, for the first time; as the host of this momentous event. The record 127 delegates had fun in the country, enjoyed the sights while competing in the contest’s various fast track events, all hoping to amass enough points to enter the semifinals. We will focus on the current delegates of the 3 countries featured here with their official Miss World bios:
Colombia – Daniella Ocoro
Colombia last placed in 2009. Since then they seem to have missed the formula even with last year’s Barbara Turbay. Sure, Barbara is beautiful, but I guess lack of the proper support given to a Miss World candidate was evident as she missed the semifinals. Yes, real beauty cannot be ignored in Miss World, but it can be, at times overshadowed by a strong performance at the fasttrack competitions.
Daniella’s performance at the most is underwhelming even her FB page has little or no updates that I still see Barbara Turbay’s old pics. Again we saw Colombia clap at the finals. Colombia is a large country with many opportunities for a noteworthy BWP project, why can’t they get their ladies’ hands dirty with it? Maybe it's the missing ingredient in them that the MWO is looking for. Look at how far BWP took Miss Nepal.
Mexico – Marilyn Chagoya
Last year’s infamous early exit by National Director Lupita Jones after the exquisite Mariana Berumen was shut out of the Top 7 was a cliffhanger – will she still stay on as the franchise owner of Miss World or will someone else take over? It appeared that she has finally given in to the inevitable and staged a low-publicized Miss Mexico Mundo contest with Veracruz native Marilyn Chagoya besting other delegates to earn the right to represent Mexico in Miss World 2013.
Marilyn is not your cookie-cutter Mexican delegate with her American Indian features with a cheerful personality - rather refreshing but risky choice for Mexico but very worth it. I am for one sold with Marilyn’s overall package. Since 2005 when BWAP became a ticket to the semifinals, only Ecuador has managed to win the BWP title in the Americas.
It seems the world is not ready for a different type of Mexican beauty as Marilyn fell short of the Top 20. However, as shown in her FB page, Marilyn definitely enjoyed her time in Bali and her FB page is full of updates. Marilyn had the attitude of a great representative.
Philippines – Megan Lynne Young
Megan has been a favorite since she won her national pageant. She entered the Top 5 of the Beach Beauty competition, Top 4 of the Multimedia Competition and won the Top Model competition. Those placements are already a huge advantage to her and as the Top 10 semifinalist were announced; she came out on top, narrowly edging Brazil, another early favorite.
If there was a time for more focus for Mexico and Colombia, it should be now that Miss World appears to be entering a new era in its history. If Philippines managed to break its “curse” this year, I’m sure in the coming years they will their time. All it takes is a delegate who believes she can take it all for her country. Megan is not a perfect delegate, but she believed that she is the complete package and performed like it.
Next feature - we will talk about Miss World's oldest bridesmaid - Canada
