Venezuela's Edymar Martinez wins Miss International 2015 crown

With Filipino pageant fans drooling over the buffering live stream of the Miss International 2015 pageant's final moments towards coronation, their shared hope for Bb. Pilipinas International 2015 Janicel Lubina to put Philippines in a tie with Venezuela for having six Miss International titles apiece was very high. However, fate has it for Venezuela to further advance in the crown tally from six to seven -- same number of Miss Universe crowns they have for their country.

Edymar Martinez of Venezuela, along with Mexico's Lorena Sevilla and Philippines' Janicel Lubina were the early crowd favorites and are more-likely considered to win the title. Even after the announcement of first runner up, the competition was still between the three of them. Why not, since the turn of the millenium, Venezuela, Mexico and the Philippines were the highest-placing countries with Venezuela's four titles (2000, 2003, 2006 and 2010), Mexico with two (2007 and 2009) and Philippines with two titles as well (2005 and 2013).

Below are the other finalists who placed in this year's pageant edition?

1st Runner Up   - Honduras -  Jennifer Valle
2nd Runner Up  - Kenya     -  Eunice Onyango
3rd Runner Up  -  Vietnam  -  Pham Hong Thuy Van
4th Runner Up  - USA         - Lindsay Becker

Top 10:

Brazil   - Isis Stocco
Mexico - Lorena Sevilla
Philippines - Janicel Lubina
Thailand - Sasee Sintawe
United Kingdom - Sophie Loudon

There are just some noteworthy trend the way the above-mentioned countries place in the top-three or top-five since the turn of the millenium;

1.) That Philippines, Mexico and Venezuela has never been together in a top-three or a top-five spot.
2.) Philippines has never been a runner-up in the twenty-first century. It's either they win it, or forget it.
3.) Just like Miss Universe, most Miss International winners are latinas. Since 1997, only in 2001, 2002, 2005, 2012 and 2013 that the titles were won by non-latina candidates.

Miss International 2015 - Philippines versus Venezuela

Philippines                      Country                    Venezuela
Janicel Lubina                   Name          Edymar Martinez
20 years old                      Age                    20 years old
5' 9"                                Height                           5' 11"
Unplaced              Placement last year           Unplaced
Winner (5 )             Best Performance          Winner (6)





Barely two weeks before the Miss International 2015 finals yet the heat is on as the candidates from different countries participate in several pre-pageant activities. While there are several early favorites out of seventy-two (72) entrants, long time pageant aficionados can figure out that the competition is neck-to-neck between the representatives from Philippines and Venezuela.

 Janicel won the Bb. Pilipinas International title on March 15, 2015 along with the other winners for Miss Universe, Miss Supranational, Miss Intercontinental and Miss Tourism pageants respectively. Her more than seven months of preparation goes with it some sort of pressure as one of her colleagues, Ann Lorraine Colis bagged the crown for the Miss Globe 2015 pageant.

Prior to being crowned  Bb. Pilipinas International, she also joined Miss World Philippines 2013 pageant and placed 1st runner up to the eventual Miss World 2013 winner Megan Young.

Edymar was crowned Miss Venezuela Internacional 2014 on October 9, 2014 along with the winners for Miss Universe and Miss Earth pageant for 2015. Her more than a year of preparation was designed to put Venezuela back on the Miss International map. It should be noted that Venezuela set a record of winning the crown in a three year interval -- 1997, 2000, 2003, and 2006. The last time Venezuela claimed a Miss International crown was in 2010.

In the event that Janicel wins the crown this year, that puts Philippines in a tie with Venezuela for the most number of wins ( 6 ) in the Miss International pageant history. Should Venezuela win, it would raise their title count to seven, same number as of the Miss Universe titles they have.