My encounter with the Miss Earth beauties

By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.

BESIDES being a sports buff, I’m also an avid follower of world’s beauty pageants. Every time a world beauty contest is being shown on TV like the Miss Universe, Miss International, Miss World and Miss Earth, I don’t ever want to miss it. And of course. I always root for Miss Philippines and Miss Mexico, the two countries that gave me my mixed genes, having a Filipina mother and a Chicano father.

I have never met any world beauty candidate personally in my life before until last October 29 when I purposely motored to Alaminos City on the invitation of Alaminos City Vice Mayor Teofilo Humilde, Jr. to meet the 2008 Miss Earth contestants in person during their two-day tour especially of the world’s famous Hundred Islands.

Fourteen out of eighty Earth beauties arrived – Miss Venezuela, Miss Peru, Miss Jamaica, Miss Slovenia, Miss Netherlands, Miss Germany, Miss Belgium, Miss Romania, Miss Scotland, Miss Tahiti, Miss South Africa, Miss South Sudan, Miss Thailand and Miss China. They were cordially welcomed by the city’s government officials spearheaded by Mayor Hernani Braganza, veem Humilde and a huge crowd.

My golly, they’re really gorgeous, vivacious, cheerful and strikingly very beautiful, you feel that you are out of this world when you stare at them.

But I felt a bit sad because Miss Philippines and Miss Mexico were not part of the delegation. Meeting these two beauties was one of the principal reasons why I took that trip. (A media colleague said the other aspirants were spread out to visit the other tourist marks of the Philippines for promotional purposes.

Yes, I can see the logic in that.

After a yummy lunch with the beauties by the quayside in barangay Lucap, a press conference was held facilitated by the hard-working city administrator retired PNP Col. Wilmer Panabang.

Knowing that the countries of Venezuela and Peru are the perennial winners in many world beauty pageants, then and until now, I asked the two specifically, what the formula was why their countries’ candidates are always the favorite and popular winners in beauty competitions are concerned.

The Venezuelan beauty, Daniela Torrealba, started to answer in English, then asked permission to speak and explain in her native language Spanish.

The crowd chortled after her speech, more because they obviously did not understand what she said.

Renato Remogat, also a media man, knowing that I can speak a little Spanish, asked me to explain what Miss Venezuelan said.

Translating for the crowd how I understood her, she said most Venezuelan beauties are winning world beauty pageants because there’s a school in their country for girls at the early age of five years and above, for beauty and modeling fashion (but not mandatory) to prepare then for international competitions in the future.

Miss Peru, Guiliana Zevallos, who speaks fluent English, added that she’s confident to be one of the semifinalists if not one of the finalists of the annual affair.

I also talked to Miss Belgium, Debbie Gomeren, who on learning that I’m a former Philippine cycling champion, she said she knows Eddy Merck, the most popular Belgian athlete of all time being a five-time winner of Tour de France and Tour of Italy and three-time World Road Race champion.

Miss Germany, Dayana Schult, also told me that she knows Jan Ullrich, her country mate who won the Tour de France in 1997, four-time first runner-up and also the gold medalist in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

And according to veem Humilde, Miss Netherlands, Melanie de Laut, is an amateur boxer and hopes to represent her nation, too, in boxing in any international competitions.

These three European beauties are really sports fanatics.

No wonder, their country can easily win medals in Olympic Games, unlike us.

(Readers may reach columnist at biking.jess@yahoo.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/sports-eye/
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