Gwendolyn Ruais @ Miss World 2011

Gwendolyn Ruais, the first Miss World Philippines (first contestant not under Bb. Pilipinas), took first runner-up honors in Miss World 2011 on Sunday, November 6, (Monday morning in Manila) at the Earls Court Two in London. She has duplicated Evangeline Pascual‘s 1st runner up feat in Miss World 1973 in London, still the best placement of a Pinay beauty in the Miss World pageant. The crown remains elusive to a Filipina as Miss World is still the only title among grand slam beauty pageants that hasn’t won by the Philippines.

Over the weekend, Gwendolyn made it to the pageant’s three fast track events – Top 20 in Beach Beauty, Top 20 in Top Model and Top 10 in Beauty with a Purpose. Her inclusion in the said preliminaries earned for Gwendolyn enough points to enter the Top 30 quarterfinalists.

The Top 30 was trimmed down into 15 semi-finalists with Miss Puerto Rico at the top of the leaderboard. From the 15 semi-finalists, the panel of judges picked the Top 7 namely Miss England, Miss Korea, Miss Philippines, Miss Puerto Rico, Miss Scotland, Miss South Africa and Miss Venezuela.

Miss Venezuela was declared the winner while our very own Gwendolyn Ruais settled for first runner-up placement. Miss Puerto Rico, Amanda Perez, came third in the contest. Gwendolyn was also named a Continental Queen of Beauty for the Asia Pacific.