Chelsea Manalo reunites with Miss Universe Philippines 2024 batch mates in Mexico

Chelsea Manalo (right) is reunited with her 2024 Miss Universe Philippines ‘sisters’ Victoria Velasquez Vincent (center) and Christina Chalk./VOLTAIRE TAYAG FACEBOOK PHOTO

Chelsea Manalo found two sure friends among the bevy of beauties who gathered in Mexico for the 2024 Miss Universe pageant when she was reunited with her national competition “sisters,” Victoria Velasquez Vincent and Christina Chalk.

The three competed in the 2024 Miss Universe Philippines pageant in May, where Manalo bagged the top prize. Vincent, who represented Bacoor, Cavite, in the national competition finished in the Top 10. Chalk, the delegate from the Filipino community in the United Kingdom, advanced to the Top 20.

Miss Universe Philippines (MUPH) Executive Vice President Voltaire Tayag shared a photo of the three ladies together in Mexico City, with both Manalo and Chalk flashing finger hearts to the camera, as the 2024 Miss Universe pageant rolls out.

Vincent, who was earlier crowned Miss Universe Philippines-Charity in the 2021 national pageant, was initially offered to represent New Zealand in the 2021 Miss Universe pageant, but she declined it. After the 2024 contest in the Philippines, she returned to her father’s home country to grab that chance again, and won the Miss Universe New Zealand title.

Chalk has been making the rounds of pageants in the United Kingdom before flying to her mother’s home country of the Philippines to continue her quest for a crown. After the national search in Manila, she went back to England and won the Miss Universe Great Britain title.

Christina Chalk from Great Britain, (from left), Victoria Velasquez Vincent from New Zealand, and Shereen Ahmad from Bahrain join Chelsea Manalo in this photo./MISS UNIVERSE PHILIPPINES FACEBOOK PHOTO

But the three ladies are not the only women of Filipino heritage competing in the 2024 Miss Universe pageant. Bahrain-born and raised part-Filipino contender Shereen Ahmad is representing her father’s Arab nation in the international competition, giving Manalo another “kababayan” to bond with.

The 2024 Miss Universe pageant is gathering its biggest haul of delegates in the global tilt’s history, with participants from more than 120 countries and territories competing for the title currently held by Sheynnis Palacios, the first winner from Nicaragua.

The new queen will be crowned at the culmination of the final competition show at the Arena CDMX in Mexico City on Nov. 16 (Nov. 17 in Manila). Manalo will try to post the Philippines’ fifth victory in the Miss Universe pageant, following Gloria Diaz (1969), Margie Moran (1973), Pia Wurtzbach (2015) and Catriona Gray (2018).