Sabah’s Elaine and Julylen for world pageant

Elaine (left) and Julylen at the press conference yesterday.

KOTA KINABALU: For two years in a row, Sabah will have the distinction of representing the country in one of the most prestigious pageants this year.

Sabahan duo Elaine Audrey Lee, 18, and Julylen Liew, 20, will compete in the world finals of the Miss Tourism Queen International 2010 in Guangzhou, China slated for Sept 3 – 27.

Elaine was crowned as Miss Borneo Tourism Queen International 2010 in the final on Friday while Julylen is this year’s Miss Malaysia Tourism Queen International 2010 winner.

Last year, Malaysia was represented by Sabahan beauties Stella Matilda and Cassandra Patrick represented Malaysia in the Miss Tourism World pageant.

“I am so happy that I won the title. I still cannot believe it but yes, I did it.

“I learn a lot of things during the three weeks’ run-up to the pageant here and I will do my best at the international competition,” said the elated Elaine during a press conference at Hyatt Regency Hotel yesterday.

Elaine who is supposed to continue her studies in Architecture this September will postpone her plans to next year since she is so excited to represent Malaysia in the World Miss Tourism Queen International 2010.

As both Elaine and Julylen are under Foxy Production, they will be trained by its CEOs, Stella Matilda and Cassandra Patrick who were also the former winners in both pageants.

“After we have both represented Malaysia in this world pageant, we will start grooming them (Elaine and Julylen) in terms of talent, physical, public speaking, table manners and other things because we only have one month to make sure that they are ready to be there, among the 100 contenders.

“Both of them are very new in beauty pageant. This is our main challenge because we have very limited time to train them,” Cassandra said yesterday.

Julylen who was also present at the press conference yesterday told the reporters that she had learned a lot of things through the beauty pageant, including how to represent her own state at the world level.

She believes that with her positive thinking and great attitude, especially her happy go lucky character, she will have a chance and be more confident in competing at the international level.

During the world final, Julylen will be wearing the Kelantanese royalty princess costume while Elaine will choose the Murut costume for their traditional attire.