Adventures of a Beauty Queen

Ekaterina's FB Proifle Pic

Congratulations to all my Russian friends – your lovely candidate Ekaterina Grushanina won the Ms Tourism Queen International 2009 title on Friday night, August 28, 2009 in Zhangzhou, China!!!  Although she was not in my list of possible winners, I think she is beautiful and deserves the freshly redesigned Ms Tourism Queen crown.

The new crown is designed by Wisavej Watanasuk

I am sad though because our girl, Ms Philippines Marie Razel Eguia did not place in the Top 15 but she did shine in the Evening Gown competition - she received the 2nd Runner-up award. Congrats Razel, you are AMAZING, can’t wait for you to fly back home!!!  If you want to know more about the Marie Razel Eguia, Ms Philippines Earth – Air 2008, click here.

MS RUSSIA is crowned the new Ms Tourism Queen 2009!

I am sure Ekaterina Grushanina’s experience as a professional choreographer and dancer helped her stand out during all the stage presentations. This 23-year-old is the 2nd candidate from Russia to win the title of Ms Tourism Queen International. The Philippines also has had a winner – the lovely Justine Gabionza walked away with the Ms Tourism Queen title in 2006.

Ekaterina Grushanina's Ms International 2008 Headshot, she did not place in this pageant

Let’s see how well (OR HOW BAAAAD!) I did in my choices:

MISS TOURISM QUEEN INTERNATIONAL 2009 – MS RUSSIA – Ekaterina Grushanina (I totally missed out on choosing her! AK!)

1st Runner-Up – MS BRAZIL – Vivian Noronha Cia

2nd Runner-Up – MS GUINEA – Safia Souare

3rd Runner-Up – MS CHINA – Shen YuJie (my pick)

4th Runner-Up – MS FRENCH POLYNESIA – Ina Amamda Pater (my pick)
Top 20 List:

MS ALTAI REPUBLIC – Natalia Chirkova (my pick)
MS CANADA – Aleksandra Malkin (my pick)
MS FRANCE – Celia Bettinger
MS GUATEMALA – Ana Gabriela Monzon Padilla
MS KYRGYZSTAN – Aelita Azhybekova (my pick)
MS MALAYSIA – Cassandra Patrick (my pick)
MS MONTENEGRO – Jovana Bisevac
MS NEW ZEALAND – Natalie Sangster
MS NIGERIA – Nwakanma Diana Odiaka
MS POLAND – Magdalena Krzywda
MS PHUKET – Posuphap Pinanong
MS PUERTO RICO – Agnes Benitez
MS ROMANIA – Anamaria Istrate
MS SINGAPORE – Valentane Huang
MS TURKMENISTAN – Gulnara Galyamova

Bad performance for me in this pageant! I got only 6 girls out of the Top 20, but that’s okay, it is extremely difficult to judge beauty contestants solely on photos but I’ve been good at it until now. There’s always a FIRST, I say.

Thanks to one of my favorite beauty pageant info sources, MyKiRu IsYuSeRo for most of the information above. If you want to see ALL the winners (they gave away titles for each continent and had several special awards) then click here to get to MyKiRu’s amazing blog!