India Post News Service

LOS ANGELES: Miss Korea, Diane Yoo, was named as this year's Miss Asia USA 2008 winner at the 20th annual Miss Asia USA Pageant held on June 21 at the Alexander Theater located on Brand Avenue in downtown Glendale.

With her beautiful Venetian style turquoise evening gown, and intricately designed tiger-print train, Miss Korea looked truly magnificent as she stunned the judges and stood in confidence while accepting her crown from former Miss Asia 2007 Queen, Katherine Sitseri.

It was a dream come true for Miss Korea, traveling every weekend from Texas for preparation truly paid off for her. A total of 31 delegates represented countries from the vast Asian continent, ranging from countries far east as Korea, far south as Vietnam, far north as Uzbekistan and far west as Israel. Representing India was Neha Goradia, and representing Sri Lanka was Manuri Ranassinghe.

When asked how she prepared for the pageant, Manuri stated that she visited lots of temples, meditated regularly, talked to a Swami to mentally prepare her for the challenge and learned how to deal with pressure management.

Manuri went on to say "it is the journey that matters not the end result." On a funnier note, Manuri laughed when she told India Post that she finally learned how to walk in heels. For the first time in Miss Asia USA Pageant history, President of Virgelia Productions, Virgelia Vilegas acted as director, while she handed the hosting position to the beautiful "Deal or no Deal" suitcase #14 model, Pilar Lastra and day time actor Hector Luis Bustamante.

Bustamante and Lastra welcomed guests and introduced the twelve judges who later had the difficult task of deciding which delegate possessed the best qualities of a young Asian Women. Qualities such as culture, intelligence, beauty, confidence, social skills, poise, and which delegate would best fit the mold of a true "role-model", were all deciding factors in this pageant.

Beginning the spectacular event was a somber dance number by the beautiful delegates themselves. Guests cheered and applauded in excitement as the enchanting ladies smiled and waved at the crowd. The evening continued with an elaborate parade of national Costume, followed by an award for best national costume, which went to Miss Korea delegate #26, Diane Yoo.

Intermission entertainment was provided by Jillina's Sahlala Belly Dancers and singing by three different artists (Justin Nguyen, Gibran Sean and Francis Fernandez). Entertainment was followed by a swimsuit segment (provided by Malibu Dream girl swimwear) and an evening gown segment. Proceeding the evening gown segment, awards were given out for several categories: Miss congeniality, most photogenic, most popular, best swimsuit, peoples' choice and for the first time, most courageous.

The most courageous award was given to Miss Japan, Ayako Kosuge,who was tragically diagnosed with throat cancer early on in the pageant, but despite her difficulties had the courage and self-confidence to continue on. As the spectacular event came to an end, ten delegates were chosen as the top-ten.

The top-ten were then narrowed down to the "top-five", by the "fish-bowl method": picking out a name of a judge from a bowl and answering a corresponding question. The chosen top-five delegates were delegate # 18 Miss Taiwan Brittany Chen, delegate #17 Miss Philippines Liane Valenzuela, delegate #25 Miss Uzbekistan Tamanno Kamiljanova, delegate #26 Miss Korea Diane Yoo and finally, delegate #22 Miss Vietnam Linda Tram Nguyen. Finally, the moment that everyone was waiting for arrived. Each of the five delegates was given the same question to answer, while her competitors were made to wear headsets to block out noise.

The judges then took a few minutes to decide who was fit for the crown. As the votes were tallied five red envelopes were handed to the hosts, each containing the fate of the remaining delegates. Miss Uzbekistan was announced as the fourth runner up, Miss Philippines as the third, Miss Vietnam as the second, Miss Taiwan as the first.

Neha's make up artist comes from a family of highly reputable beauticians. Her mother is a winner of three gold medals for her salon in Hyderabad, India. Since the last seventeen years, she has worked on people from different ethnicities, fashion shows and beauty peagents.

Her work was published in the LA Times, Ceremonies, a bridal magazine. She specializes in bridal and fashion make up, airbrush, hair and mehendi (henna) services and has worked with celebrity designers such as Hasan Sheheryar Yasin, Ather Shahzad, Jasbir Aurora, etc.