Maria Ahtisa Manalo of the Philippines and Praveenar ‘Veena’ Singh of Thailand have a similar pageant trajectory. Both made several attempts to capture their country’s top crowns, finally winning this year. And at the national costume show and the preliminary competitions on Wednesday, November 19, both delivered exceptional performances.
The Finnish-Filipina Ahtisa aims for the Philippines’ fifth crown, after Gloria Diaz in 1969, Margarita Moran in 1973, Pia Wurtzbach in 2015 and Catriona Gray in 2018. Meanwhile, Veena, of Indian descent, aims for Thailand’s third, after Porntip Nakhirunkanok in 1988 and 1965’s Apasra Hongsakula, who, as pageant legend has it, was trained by the recently departed Queen Sirikit.
First Timers
The outgoing queen, Victoria Kjær Theilvig, is the first winner from her country of Denmark. From this year’s batch of 119 contenders, the ones most likely to be first-time winners from their country -and who were standouts at preliminaries- are Costa Rica’s Mahyla Roth, Croatia’s Laura Gnjatovic, Estonia’s Brigitta Schaback, Italy’s Lucilla Nori, Malta’s Julia Cluett, Senegal’s Camilla Diagne, Sri Lanka’s Lihasha White, Turks and Caicos Islands’ Bereniece Dickenson, Côte d’Ivoire’s Olivia Yacé, Guadeloupe’s Ophély Mézino, and Vietnam’s Huong Giang Nguy?n.
Haiti’s Melissa Sapini wore a national costume created by Kennedy Jhon Gasper and an evening gown by Rian Fernandez during preliminaries, while Ecuador’s Nadia Mejía was Miss California USA 2016 and placed in the Top 5 at Miss USA 2016.
Crossover Queens
Queen Victoria herself competed at Miss Grand international 2022, placing in the Top 20. From the Class of 2025, the queens who have competed at other international pageants, and therefore, are fully equipped to snatch the crown are:
Belgium’s Karen Jansen, Miss World 2025 Top 40; Canada’s Jaime Vandenberg, Miss Earth Canada 2018, Miss World 2023 Top 40; Colombia’s Vanessa Pulgarín, Miss International Colombia 2017; Costa Rica’s Mahyla Roth, Miss International 2022 Top 15; El Salvador’s Giulia Zanoni, Miss Grand International 2024 Top 20; Great Britain’s Danielle Latimer, Miss Grand Wales 2015;
Guatemala’s Raschel Paz, Miss Grand Guatemala 2023; Miss Universe Latina Yamilex Hernandez, Miss International Dominican Republic 2023, MI 2023 Top 15; Latvia’s Meldra Rosenberg, Miss Latvia Supranational 2025;
Moldova’s Mariana Ignat was Miss Supra Germany 2023, Miss Charm Germany 2024 and Miss Charm 2024 Top 10; Netherlands’ Nathalie Mogbelzada, Miss International Netherlands 2017. Miss Supra Netherlands 2019/ MS 2019 Top 25; Miss Grand 2021 Top 20. Palestine’s Nadeen Ayoub, Miss Earth 2022 Water; Paraguay’s Yanina Gomez, Miss World Paraguay 2025;
Vietnam’s Vietnam’s Huong Giang Nguy?n was Miss International Queen 2018, the biggest pageant for trans women in the world.
The biggest threats from this group, however, are the queens who previously competed at Miss World. Miss Universe winners such as Georgina Rizk (1971), Angela Visser (1989), Michelle McLean (1992), Mpule Kwelagobe (1999), Catriona Gray (2018), Andrea Meza (2020) and Sheynnis Palacios (2023) all failed to win the Miss World crown.
In 2025, the strongest Miss World alumnae are Côte d’Ivoire’s Olivia Yacé, who was Miss World 2021 Second Runner-up; and Guadeloupe’s Ophély Mézino, who was Miss World France 2019 and Miss World 2019 First Runner-up.
Ahtisa’s Biggest Threats
Besides Veena of Thailand, Ahtisa’s roadblocks to the crown are from nations which has already produced winners such as Argentina’s Aldana Masset, Chile’s Inna Moll, Mexico’s Fátima Bosch, Nicaragua’s Itza Castillo, Puerto Rico’s Zashely Alicea, USA’s Audrey Eckert, and Venezuela’s Stephany Abasali, who was always clad in Michael Cinco Couture but opted for Leo Almodal during the preliminaries.
In her astonishing national costume and haute-couture evening gown by Pampanga designer Mak Tumang, who created Catriona’s now iconic gowns, Ahtisa was unstoppable at preliminaries. I’m still hoping, though, that the ravishing gowns made by Val Taguba especially for her, will still be showcased at the Impact Challenger Hall, Pak Kret, Nonthaburi, Thailand.