Falynda (fourth left) beats the bevy of Sabahan beauties at the MGIM Sabah Media Conference and winning the Media’s Choice Award.
KOTA KINABALU: It only took a short catwalk stint and a brief introduction for Falynda Sharon Mathew to catch the attention of the press and win the Media’s Choice Award at the 2016 Miss Global International Malaysia (MGIM) Sabah Media Conference.
The petite Penampang lass, who is 45 kg and stands at 166 cm, beat 11 other finalists from throughout Sabah at the Oceanus Shopping Mall’s Ocean7 Art Gallery here yesterday.
But will she have what it takes to reign as the fairest of them all during the inaugural state- level competition in February 2016.
“We are not only looking for girls who are beautiful on the outside but also inside. That is why we encourage them to do charity activities this year,” said MGIM Sabah director Fareast Noah.
Driven by his own experience of growing up in an orphanage since the age of seven, Fareast, who left home as an adult and built his own career, wanted to give back to society using the pageant platform.
“For the MGIM Sabah 2016, we are not only doing for beauty but also for charity purposes. We will collaborate with a few NGOs, such as KASIH (Sabah AIDS Support Services Association), that is promoting HIV and AIDS awareness.
“We are now looking at other NGOs dealing with old folks home, children’s home, and we will also be visiting the children’s hospital and the general hospital,” added the state director in revealing part of the activities lined up for MGIM Sabah.
Ocean7 chairman Datuk Sharifah Habsah lauded MGIM Sabah’s efforts and described the pageant as a positive character building event.
“Self-confidence and charisma are good characteristics. The pageant can be a way of nurturing this. In the future, the platform can help to strengthen the way you interact with people and help in building your future career,” said Sharifah.
“Participants can balance their academic background through the self-confidence building pageants,” she added.
Fareast (second right), with Sharifah (centre), Ocean7 creative director Dewina Saidin (second left), Immaculate (right) and Media’s Choice Award winner Falynda during the MGIM Sabah media conference.
In 2015, Sabah’s Immaculate Lojuki, who was among four other Sabahans at the national level competition, took the MGIM crown and represented the country at the international level in Japan.
“Since a Sabahan represented the country in 2015, there are talks that MGIM might be interested to hold the national level competition in Sabah. It is scheduled for August 2016, however, nothing is determined yet and we will have to wait and see,” said Fareast after the conference.
“We have another four slots empty before the competition next year as we are looking at a total of 18 contestants for the state-level competition. To date we have 14 girls who are not only stunning on the outside but also inside,” he added.
MGIM Sabah is also inviting interested sponsors to become collaborators of the MGIM Sabah 2016.
Miss Global International Association is the third largest beauty pageant competition in the world and crowns its participants with titles such as Miss International, Miss Supranational and Miss Intercontinental.
Three Sabahan winners will be chosen to represent the state at the national competition in 2016.
MGIM Sabah hopes the pageant will not only provide exposure for the state’s queen, but also empower her to represent Sabah and promote Sabah tourism as well as its traditional culture among Malaysian and international pageant enthusiasts alike.
The MGIM Sabah queen will also hold the responsibility of becoming the symbol of unity and empowerment for women, especially from among the younger generation, through the pageant.