Body beautiful

Standouts in the swimsuit preliminaries

By Earl D.C. Bracamonte

While all of them could talk, not all of them could walk; especially in the swimsuit round. In fact, while most of them looked shapely in a still photograph, the candidates' romp down the designated runway showed some girls were bowlegged and had stocky lower extremities. This is, by the way, not to body shame any of the girls' bodies but to pinpoint disparities in physical proportions which the highly-rabid social media forums would quickly pounce on.

This makes pasarela training so important because it teaches the ladies to glide effortlessly between segments and categories. A friend even joked that one entrant looked liked she was on her way to her class at the Philippine Military Academy. Another sashayed like she was in the Miss Grand International pageant. 

There is no single correct way to walk in pageants as one's gait is uniquely their own. But there are winning struts that spell the difference between a queen and an aspirant. With that being said, here are my top ten standouts in the swimsuit preliminaries. 

In random order, they are:

- Janela Joy Cuaton of Albay

- Leren Mae Bautista of Laguna

- Kirsten Danielle Delavin of Masbate

- Maureen Christa Wroblewitz of Pangasinan

- Princess Khrista Singh of Pasig

- Katrina Jayne Dimaranan of Taguig

- Christelle Abello of Aklan

- Steffi Rose Aberasturi of Cebu Province

- Grace Charmaine Banua Vendiola of Negros Oriental,

and

- Chella Grace Falconer of Misamis Oriental

Interestingly, some of the girls displayed well-toned abdomens. This only meant months of hard work, and a deluge of positive thinking, to reach this point in the competition.

By now, the girls have already settled in their official lodgings at the Henann Resort in Panglao Bohol. They are now heavily immersed in their rehearsal for the grand coronation night on Thursday, Sept. 30. Stay tuned for more revealing news in the days to come.

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Images from Facebook/MUPh