Miss Universe Spain 2021 Sarah Loinaz may visit Manila to receive El Tocuyo award

Manila, Philippines-- Miss Universe Spain 2021 Sarah Loinaz may fly to the Philippines to receive her El Tocuyo award from local pageant fans.

If she pushes through with her intention, it will be one of the rare times that an El Tocuyo nominee actually gets to receive the honor since the phenomenon started in 2016.

The El Tocuyo award is given to a Miss Universe candidate who had been named a frontrunner by several pageant sites and analysts, but failed to make it to the semifinals---like last year's Natasha Joubert from South Africa.

The El Tocuyo Awards started in 2016 with Mariam Habach of Venezuela's non-placement at the pageant held in Manila. El Tocuyo is the name of her hometown and from then on, frontrunners who didn't make the first cut were called El Tocuyo awardees.

Like the Razzies given out annually by the Golden Raspberry Foundation, El Tocuyo follows the same rationale of recognizing what for an entrant was her best performance, but was perceived as mediocre by a judging panel.

The 70th Miss Universe nominees for the El Tocuyo awards included Teresa Santos, who broke Brazil's ten-year placement from 2011-2020; Anchilee Scott-Kemmis, who broke Thailand's six-year placement from 2015-2020; Antonia Figueroa of Chile, winner of the Miss Universe 2021 Impact Award; Deborah Hallal of Mexico; and Kedist Deltour of Belgium.

However, the current pandemic situation may stall Loinaz's plans to fly to Manila.

Meanwhile in Miss Universe history, Spain won a Miss Universe crown only once in 1974. The late Amparo Muñoz won the elusive crown in glitzy rites at the  then-newly-completed Folk Arts Theater in Manila.