29 November 2014 | 13:08

Miss Kazakhstan-2014 presents its contestants

Miss Kazakhstan crown

Participants of Miss Kazakhstan-2014 beauty pageant gathered in Almaty two weeks prior to the event to prepare for one of the brightest and most anticipated events of the year Miss Kazakhstan-2014, Tengrinews reports.

Participants of Miss Kazakhstan-2014 beauty pageant gathered in Almaty two weeks prior to the event to prepare for one of the brightest and most anticipated events of the year Miss Kazakhstan-2014, Tengrinews reports.

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Almaty beauty becomes Miss Kazakhstan-2014

01 December 2014, 13:47

34 beauties from all over Kazakhstan arrived in Almaty. They had their first professional photoshoot for the contest. Besides, they were rehearsing every day, taking part in social and sport events, including a friendly football match with journalists.

Apart from 29 girls that are winners of local beauty contests, five more girls were selected via online voting that was held at the official website of Miss Kazakhstan beauty pageant on November 3-9.

However, Miss Taraz-2014 Ainur Altynekova decided to back out from participation for health reasons - the girl had acute tonsillitis.

At the last moment Third Vice Miss Almaty-2014 Laura Abdramanova also dropped out from the contest due to family circumstances: the girl got a marriage proposal. "Now she is busy with the wedding. This proves that all the participants of Miss Kazakhstan quickly get married. But that was for the first time that a girl was made a marriage proposal five days into the rehearsals," Director of the beauty contest Alena Rivlina.

In addition, this year organizers decided to make changes to the format of the beauty contest. From now on, the people of Kazakhstan will have a say in the selection of the country's most beautiful girl. "The work of the jury finishes after three finalists are selected (at the Grand Finale). People then choose the Miss Kazakhstan via SMS and online voting. So we no longer choose the girl. We just recommend three participants who deserve it, but the final decision is up to the Kazakhstanis," Director of the beauty contest Alena Rivlina said in an interview to Tengrinews in September.

Moreover, the winner will receive not only the right to represent Kazakhstan at Miss World and Miss Universe, but also a cash prize of 1 million tenge (nearly $5,500) along with prizes from sponsors.

This year, the jury panel is made of Kazakhstan's four-time world champion in weightligting and two-time Olympic champion Ilya Ilyin, Kazakhstan’s popular singers Luina, Ali Okapov, Marat Orazgalin and Miss Almaty-2014 and Second Vice Miss Kazakhstan-2014 Saltanat Bekzhigitova.

"There are many beautiful girls this year. Therefore, we will pay more attention to the girls' upbringing, education, goals and aspirations, knowledge of languages along with the appearance. The jury will have the task of choosing not only the most beautiful girl, but also the one who is worthy to represent Kazakhstan on the world stage," Alena Rivlina said.

Here are the participants of Miss Kazakhstan-2014:

Gaukhar Zheldibayeva