Derana Miss Sri Lanka for Miss Earth 2015 : Grand Finale 

Visna Fernando crowned as Derana Goya Miss Sri Lanka for Miss Earth 2015

Pacing through a tough, competitive and fun-filled journey, Visna Fernando was finally crowned as Derana Goya Miss Sri Lanka for Miss Earth 2015. With many cheers, well-wishes and celebrations, Visna was crowned by Miss Earth 2015, Jamie Herell and the Derana Miss Sri Lanka for Miss Earth 2014, Imaya Liyanage.

Through tears of joy Visna also spoke to the Daily Mirror Life about her moment of victory: “I am speechless at the moment. I would specially like to thank Brian and everybody who helped me to achieve this title. I will definitely not wear this only for beauty but will promote my campaign of reusing polythene and plastics and help protect the environment.”

The glittering event

An evening of glamour, fun and excitement filled the halls of Citrus Waskaduwa as the Derana Miss Sri Lanka for Miss Earth beauty pageant pulled through to a victorious end. Celebrities, well-known personalities, models and past beauty queens walked in to adorn the event with pomp and pageantry. 12 charming beauties contested for one crown and throughout the rounds they stunned the audience with their beautiful faces and glamorous looks. The judges for the evening were Ranil De Silva, award-winning personality in the advertising industry, past beauty queens Shivani Wedanayaka and Nandani Atapattu, Hemal Ranasinghe, Male Model of the World, 2009 and Santhush Weeraman, renowned singing sensation.

Amidst all the fun and excitement a few well-known personalities also spoke to the Daily Mirror Life to pool in their views about the event while sending their wishes to all contestants:

Roshan Ranawana, model and actor

“The title itself talks about the environment and as such we have to do more to save our environment. There are two sides that we need to look at when promoting these pageants; one is to talk about the environment and the other is to help people protect the environment. As a person who is very close to nature, I believe that more of these pageants should be organised to produce more representatives of the country to work at an international level and help protect the environment.”

Sandamali Pushpika De Silva, Miss Sri Lanka 2011

“Being able to contest in a pageant of this nature is a big opportunity. I would say that it is a game of luck, sacrifice and confidence. I was able to represent the Miss World pageant where I also won the Beauty with a Purpose mini title gathering 30% of the points and got selected to the top 25 out of 150 contestants. I would like to ask all contestants to smile and face the contest with confidence.”

Hirunika Premachandra, politician

“I would like to wish them luck. I was also a contestant back in 2011 and I can remember that I was really nervous. When I got selected to the top 5 it was even worse. I would like to ask all of them to be confident in themselves and answer the questions to the best of their abilities because that is the point where the audience will get an idea about their intelligence.”

Nilanthi Wijesinghe, actor and Miss Ceylon, 1968

“I won the Miss Ceylon title back in 1968 and after 46 years I am very happy to take the ramp with the young ladies out there. I feel very proud to participate in this pageant wearing my crown. The advice I would like to give them is that the crown that one of them will wear is not only for beauty but it’s also a title for a purpose.”

Brian Kerkoven, fashion designer and choreographer

“I am the choreographer of the event. Got to work with many beautiful and new faces and I think it was an amazing experience. As an advice I would like to tell all of them to be themselves and enjoy the contest even if they don’t win.”

Amila Karunanayake, model and actor

“I was a judge for the Best Hair contest and would like to wish all the girls. We need newcomers to the industry and pageants like these give a boost to our industry. Hair, makeup and choreography were up to a good standard and this is how these pageants should be organised. All in all, the newcomers should work hard to take the modelling industry to a new level.”

Before the main title was crowned, the title holders of Miss Personality, Miss Green, Miss Best Figure, Miss Glamorous, Miss Beautiful Smile and many other mini titles were sashed. As the comperes announced the top 5 contestants the audience was even more curious to know the winner.

For more photographs from the event, please view the album on the Life Online page on Facebook.

By Kamanthi Wickramasinghe
Pics by Pradeep Dilrukshana