The Philippines continued to be a pageant powerhouse when Katarina Rodriguez won 1st runner up at the Miss Intercontinental 2017 beauty pageant held in Egypt last Wednesday.
Veronia Salas Vallejo of Mexico was crowned Miss Intercontinental 2017.
Other winners were Catherlijne Heppenhuis, Netherlands, 2nd runner-up; Amanda Cardoso, Brazil, 3rd runner-up; Lizeth Mendieta, Colombia, 4th runner-up; and Lee Su Jin, Korea, 5th runner-up.
The Philippines has never won in this international competition. In 2015, Christi McGarry also won first-runner up in the same contest.
Rodriguez is the last of the reigning batch of Bb. Pilipinas beauty queens who competed in international pageants.
Other Binibinis who won abroad were Elizabeth Clenci who placed 2nd runner-up in the Miss Grand International pageant and Nelda Ibe, 1st runner-up in Miss Globe.
Rodriguez, 24, is a graduate of Business Management and Philosophy at the De La Salle University on Taft Avenue in Manila.
Aside from reading and modelling, this 5’5 beauty queen is a cycling instructor and a competitive long distance runner.
Before she competed in pageants, Rodriguez has become a familiar face on television when she became a runner-up in Asia’s Next Top Model Cycle 2 in 2014. She was also an MTV video jockey and was under Viva Artists Agency.
Few days before the finals of the international pageant, Rodriguez thanked her supporters on social media.
“Philippines! I know that the voting has not been working and for me specifically, but please do not give up hope on me or Miss Intercontinental; Rodriguez was referring to the hacking incident of the Miss Intercontinental pageant website at the height of the online voting for the candidates. It was closed prematurely.
The Filipina beauty queen finished third online with 2,213 votes. Miss Korea topped the online voting with 3,638 votes and Miss Indonesia was second with 3,635 votes.
“Due to renewed massive hacking attempts of the voting we were forced to end the voting prematurely. We regret that people try to manipulate the election in such a way and congratulate the 3 winners and Korea to enter to the Top 6 as Miss Sunrise Resorts 2017,” organizers of the pageant announced on their website.
A total of 68 candidates competed at the 46th Miss Intercontinental beauty pageant this year.
Other candidates who finished in the Top 18 semi-finals were delegates from Serbia, Australia, Egypt, Hungary, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia, Nigeria, the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Russia and Vietnam.