Thomas Tan
This year, the Manhunt Malaysia 2012 pageant has broken new ground in raising RM10,000 for Malaysian AIDS Foundation (MAF).
The successful fund raising effort and promotion of healthy lifestyles to young people at the event had really put a smile on everyone’s face, including guests, sponsors, judges, officials, contestants and everyone involved, at the grand finals of Manhunt Malaysia 2012 held at Sunway Pyramid, Petaling Jaya on October 21, 2012,
Twelve handsome and masculine guys from all over Malaysia took to the stage in three rounds of casual wear, STUD underwear and formal wear to win the hearts of the judges who included celebrities like supermodel Amber Chia and actor Fahrin Ahmad.
The gentlemen were judged on catwalk and runway skills, photogenic ability, physical attributes and personality.
John Tan Wei Jun, 23, from Alor Setar, Kedah, a final year Bachelor of Management student at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) walked away as the Manhunt Malaysia 2012 winner, with bank executive Lim Chie Siang as second place, and chef Arthur Lee Kok Yang in third place.
John Tan who won RM5,000 cash and RM50,000 worth of sponsored prizes, contracts and ambassadorship will represent Malaysia in the Manhunt International finals in Bangkok on November 9, 2012.
Standing 183 cm (6 feet) tall, John Tan said he was surprised for winning the top prize saying, “I least expected it so I am really happy to have won”. He also bagged two subsidiary titles of Mr Cosmopolitan and Best Runway Model.
“I do my regular workout for almost two years now. At that time I realised I was growing bigger in size so the workout really help the kilos fall off,” added John Tan who always maintained a healthy lifestyle and tried to keep as fit as possible.
John Tan who participated in Manhunt Penang 2011 also freelanced as a model for one and a half year now and hope to realize his ambition to become a successful entrepreneur.
Lim and Arthur Lee won cash RM2,000 and RM1,000 respectively and sponsored prizes. There were ten subsidiary titles competed during the event.
The show started with the 12 contestants walked the catwalk in three rounds of fashion show: casual wear by fashion designer Key Ng, STUD underwear and formal wear by Redsense Bridal.
The guys were lucky. There was no Q&A session which was most dreaded by many contestants because of the unknown questions.
Sorry gals, the STUD underwear fashion was a tame version. The shirts came off and handsome and bare-chested masculine guys walked the runway towards admiring audience revealing only the exposed underwear waistband with the brand name on it.
There were no teasing, ladies cat calling or wolf whistling though but Citizen Journalist Malaysia (CJMY) stood near enough a group of ladies and overheard one of them said: “Oh boy! They’re so handsome”.
Local singers Eddz Amier Hamzah and Bob Yusof sang a few songs to the delight of their fans who enthusiastically posed for photos with them.
“I think all the guys have every nice body. They are all very good looking and I didn’t realise that Malaysia has so many good looking men until today!” said Amber Chia, founder of Amber Chia Academy which sponsored the catwalk training for all the finalists.
Amber Chia said she was very glad to get involved for the first time in the judging for Manhunt Malaysia.
“The more important thing I am very glad is that the money raised goes to Malaysian AIDS Foundation to support the fight against AIDS and I hope all models in future competitions will support important charitable works because there are a lot of non governmental organizations (NGO) out there that need our help.
“I know there are only three winners today but I think all of them tried their best to win especially for those first time trying. They had only attended a three-hour catwalk training class sponsored by Amber Chia Academy and I think that they had performed remarkably well today in the catwalk appearance,” added Amber Chia who look forward to seeing more good looking men joined her academy.
Malaysian AIDS Foundation chairperson Professor Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman said their partnership with Manhunt Malaysia goes beyond raising funds for their cause for which they are thankful.
“Through this event, we hope to send out positive messages of responsible health behaviour particularly to young people as one in every four new cases of HIV every year is reported in the age group of 18 – 35 years,” she said.
The theme for this year’s event surrounds empowering young people to achieve the three zeroes for HIV: Zero new infections, Zero stigma and discriminations, and Zero AIDS-related deaths.
In a pageant world fully dominated by pageants for women, Manhunt was organised to promote new faces for the male modelling and fashion industry and provided new opportunities in advertising and promoting male-related products and services in a refreshing and masculine way.
The event was presented by Ladyship Malaysia while Broadcast Empire served as the title sponsor.
MANHUNT MALAYSIA 2012 FINALS RESULTS
Winner : John Tan Wei Jun, 23
1st Runner Up : Lim Chie Siang, 25
2nd Runner Up : Arthur Lee Kok Yang, 25
SUBSIDIARY TITLES
Mr. Popularity : Bryan John Paulose, 21
Mr. Body Beautiful : Arthur Lee Kok Yang, 25
Mr. Personality : Lim Chie Siang, 25
Mr. Physique : Hernando Taniko, 21
Mr. Photogenic : Lim Chie Siang, 25
Mr. Energetic : Exson Tshen Vui Bong, 24
Mr. Stylish : Bryan John Paulose, 21
Mr. Cosmopolitan : John Tan Wei Jun, 23
Mr. Friendship : Hernando Taniko, 21
Best Runway : John Tan Wei Jun, 23
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