Sri Lanka makes history in Mr. Earth 2011 Worldwide Pageant

The Mr. Earth Pageant conducted in Central America – Guatemala city recently brought fame and honour to Sri Lanka in the form of Milinda Wickramasinghe who was crowned Mr. Water – second runner up in the contest.

The pageant is an annual event that draws in a participation of many countries around the globe. Despite being a pageant, this contest’s main objective is to have its contestants actively promote and be involved in environment protection and preservation.

Each contestant not only would have to display intellect, physical attractiveness, outstanding personality, and good social and communication skills but also be actively committed to promoting an ecology project in the contestants’ own country or abroad and work diligently towards conservation and preservation of the earth. Sri Lanka, especially of late, has been making massive strides into the fashion industry and all its various undertakings.  Prassanna Pathmanathan, 25, entered the fashion industry four years ago as a fashion writer. Having thus piqued his interest, Prassanna then turned towards fashion journalism in earnest and has had the honour of interviewing many local and International celebrities, style icons, fashion icons and sports personalities.His interest in the industry naturally progressed into fashion consultancy and fashion styling as well.  He’s an IT graduate from University of Westminster UK and currently a PR consultant and also a lecturer in IT and Marketing.

His prowess in the field saw him bestowed with the title of National Director for Sri Lanka to nominate the Mr. Sri Lanka 2011 for the Mr. Earth 2011 Pageant. He also had the honour of being one of seven judges in the International panel judging the 2011 contest. This is the first time a Sri Lankan has been invited at such a young age to participate as a judge in an International event.

In his search for the Mr. Sri Lanka 2011 for Mr. Earth 2011 Pageant, Prassanna happened upon Wickramasinghe’s application.Wickramasinghe, 23, is an honours student at Monash University, Australia and is reading for his Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Management. He has displayed an interest and active participation in environmental issues and has worked on environment and stability at Monash University as an intern. Wickramasinghe is also an environmentalist in his own right and is involved in several green projects on his own. In addition he has also represented Sri Lanka in the swimming squad and as captain at the 2006 SAF Games in Sri Lanka. He has also represented his motherland at World Swimming Cham-pionships in Canada, the Commonwealth Games in Australia and the Asian Games in Qatar.

Following the perusal of his application and an interview with the young man, Prassanna was in no doubt that he had the right man for the task in hand.

Having arrived in Guatemala, the contestants were involved in activities such as press conferences, cultural visits, charity affairs, and fashion shows. These events enabled the judges to evaluate the contestants’ discipline, participation, behaviour, personality, attitude, sociability, punctuality, responsibility and personal care among other things. The judges also had personal interviews with each contestant to gauge his goals, ambitions, views and knowledge on environmental issues and other topics as well. An important feature of the pageant was the 15 minute presentation by the contestants of an ecology project that is to be implemented in their country. Judges evaluated the idea, its implementation, practicability and control.

Pathmanathan stressed that “although I was judging the contest, I never favoured my contestant. In fact during the personal interviews with the contestants I walked out when Mr. Sri Lanka came in since as I thought it wouldn’t be fair by the other contestants. Of course the other judges have marked him quite highly.”

Milinda was of the opinion that his ecology project is what garnered him high points with the judges and that he was glad his project ‘Go Green Mania,’ which involves the planting of trees and through this preservation of the environment, introducing an income medium for the poor segment of society in Sri Lanka, was met with such appreciation and praise.

The pageant was won by Mr. Puerto Rico – Mr. Earth, followed by Mr. Brazil as 1st Runner up – Mr. Fire and Mr. Sri Lanka as 2nd runner up – Mr. Water.

Pathmanathan and Wickramasinghe have brought nothing but honour to Sri Lanka and it is hoped that they would continue with the good work they started.