It's the time of the year again for another fresh edition of Manhunt Singapore! I have had the opportunity to attend the Manhunt Singapore 2018 Press Conference held at SCAPE Gallery Theatre to meet the finalists of this year's competition.
This year, there are 31 contestants consisting of 14 Manhunt finalists, 9 Senior Manhunt finalists and 8 Manhunt Opens finalists. There will be competing in 3 categories: Junior Category, Senior Category and the newly introduced Opens Category.
Beam Artistes, the main organiser for Manhunt Singapore 2018, had unveiled this year's theme as 'Changing Perceptions, Changing Lives'. It's a little different from the past Manhunt Singapore themes as it embraces the essence of diversity. This can be evidently seen from the new Opens Category which includes foreigners residing in Singapore to join in the Manhunt Competition. Be expected to be blown away by their unique stories by the contestants, ranging from their different ethnic background, personal struggles and their motivation to join this year's competition.
The emcees for the afternoon was Celebrity DJ and Beam Artiste Wallance Ang and Manuela Bruntraeger, Miss Singapore Universe 2017.
First up, the 14 Manhunt finalists competing in the Junior Category were being introduced.
JUNIOR CATEGORY
An avid traveller and soon to be NSF, Travis Hoi is an eccentric, quirky individual who places great importance in doing things with a heart and sincerity. He believes in staying true to himself that makes him stands out from the rest.
Contestant 2: Chew En Wei, 22
A competitive martial artist who has brought glory to our home country by bagging a bronze medal in the South East Asian Jujitsu Games 2016.
Contestant 3: Nicholas Jacob Bong, 24
The multi-talented actor, dancer and fashion designer Nicholas joined the competition with the hopes of using this platform to change the perspectives of men in the fashion industry, and that men are very much as capable as women to make fashionable clothings too.
Contestant 4: Liam Kuek Yu Jing, 19
An aspired actor, Liam wishes to win Manhunt Singapore and to be signed as a Beam Artiste. Obsesed as a kid, Liam realises his passion in sports and changed his physique by training and eating healthily.
Contestant 5: Damien Tan, 20
A pro vegetarian, Damien hopes to stop animal cruelty. Damien actively promotes the message to the crowd that every single little life is worth saving and we can do our part to save animals from being mistreated and abused. Damien is also a singer and loves outdoor activities such as basketball and dragon boating.
Contestant 6: Nick Langton, 21
The whiskey loving, confident Nick hopes to help others break past their mental barrier to achieve the best physique version of themselves. He believes in helping others up with his strong mindset. With his open mindset, he is excited to embark on this manhunt journey to meet new people and do things he has never done before.
Contestant 7: Hugo Ong, 21
The tallest finalist standing at 193cm, Hugo loves to travel and is going to complete his first ever Everest Base camp trek in April this year. Hugo is open to meeting new people from all walks of life from his travelling adventures.
Contestant 8: Lee Zheng Hui, 22
Zheng Hui is one of the twins back in his family. His motivation to join manhunt is to be differentiate himself from his twin. Zheng Hui wishes to use this oppportunity in manhunt as a driving factor to up his fitness game and impress his relatives next chinese new year.
Contestant 9: Zane Lee, 27
Zane had experienced an earthquake in Nepal while on a trekking camp that led him to embrace the YOLO attitude. Zane has achieved new heights in his career and losing 20kg in 3 months, Zane challenges himself to join manhunt to further challenge and improve himself.
Contestant 10: Ronald Yek Zhen Hon, 21
A freelance personal trainer, Ronald chose his passion over continuation of his university studies and has led him to make a good living for himself.
Contestant 11: Thomas Li, 28
A passionate watersport lover, Thomas is a certified kayaking instructor and reguarly hosts PA Water Venture Community events for kayaking and dragon boat. A banker by the day, he hopes to help people to build their wealth with his services.
Contestant 12: Eddy Rudzaniel, 25
Eddy holds the subsidary title of Mr. Maven in the 2016 RMIT Pageant. Eddy is also one of the few who had the honour of holding the pace stick during his National Service. With the help of modelling and photoshoots, Eddy has build up his self-confidence and wishes to continue grow by meeting new people and gaining new experiences.
Contestant 14: Nicholas Eugenius Lim, 27
Nicholas grew up in a Peranakan Family and owns his own cupcake store on Instagram @mummysboysg. Nicholas has a medical condition Haemophilia and hopes to use this platform of Manhunt to raise awareness on this medical condition to raise funds to find a cure for the condition. He also wants to make his mother proud as she has sacrificed a lot for him due to his medical condition.
Senior Category Men
Contestant S1: Angus Tang, 30
Angus turned his life around from being retained in Secondary 3 to commissioning as a NSF navy officer. However, life was not a bed of roses and he was retrenched two years ago. Angus turned his life around by venturing into the media industry and has been doing well since.
Contestant S2: Bernard Chiew, 31
An entrepreneur with many titles to his belt such as winner of Temasek Poly School of Design pageant and finalist of Sasuke Singapore 2012. Bernard believes in kindness and smiles as it goes a long way to make someone's day.
Contestant S3: Rudy Lim, 38
Rudy is the Head of FinTech at a local bank is passionate working with entrepeuners and startups that have interesting ideas and innovations that would change the world.
Conestant S4: Kavin Gursev, 43
A family oriented logistics manager, Kavin has a huge love for soccer, often playing centre or goalkeeper. Kavin shares his love for soccer by training his kids in soccers during his free time and cooks for his kids during weekends.
Contestant S5: Teo Tze Kwang, 41
The only bald, 'One Punch Man' looking man in the competition, Tze Kwang works as a curriculum developer in the education sector and has developed national syallabuses for humanities subjects and textbook writings. Tze Kwang wants to be an advocate for health as he believes it is not worth sacrificing health over work in the long run.
Contestant S6: Brian Lee, 34
Brian is the 2nd Artillery Officer in Singapore to have attended and graduated from SAF Ranger course. Brian is gifted in the arts scene as he excels in Arts and Crafts back in school as well as being able to play the piano.
Contestant S7: Nasri Mashoor, 31
Even though Nasri was not able to further his studies, Nasri is now a certified personal trainer with 10 years of experience and owns his very own gym. He hopes to attract people with the same mindset ad idelogies to his gym to help them achieve their goals.
Contestant S8: Adam Toh, 38
Adam leads a very active lifestyle playing sports and enjoyed adrenalined pumped activitiy such as drifting in motorsports car. However, Adam suffered ACL surgery as well as failure in business which caused him to go into depression. Adam did not let it get to him and rise above those obstacles by focusing and readjusted his life.
Contestant S9: Dexter Bouw, 35
Dexter was a fat kid in school who needed to attend TAF Club to slim down. Dexter has gone from being fat, eating very restricted calorie intake to finding a balance of going to the gym and eating everything in moderation.
Last but not least,
OPENS CATEGORY
Contestant 01: Kerry Tran, 24, Vietnam
Contestant 02: Luke Newton, 30, Australia
Contestant 03: Richard Englisch, 26, Austria
Contestant 04: Konrad Haedicke, 33, Germany
Contestant 05: Jason Paul, 27, India
Contestant 07: Vladimir Castillo, 29, Philippines
Contestant 08: Laurence Olivier, 33, Philippines
It is a tradition that the Miss Singapore Universe to pick a contestant to sit on him and have him do as many push ups as possible in a minute. Being the most beefy guy, Nick Langton was chosen and tasked to do the push ups.
A group shot was taken before the guys prepare for their talent showcase
TALENT SHOWCASE
Some of the contestants had prepared a performance item and showcased their talent to us.
First up, Nicholas Bong danced for us to the song of Dancing To Papi Todrick Hall
Kerry Tan sang Make You Feel My Love for us!
Enwei performing live Jujitsu showcase
Konrad performing live Callisthenics
Jason Paul singing on his guitar
SWIMWEAR SHOWCASE
The contestants dawned in their swimwear kindly sponsored by RAW Singapore!
JUNIOR CATEGORY
SENIOR CATEGORY
OPENS CATEGORY
These are all the 31 finalist who will be competing in Manhunt Singapore 2018. It is still pretty early on in the competition and I cannot tell who will win the competition this year. Each and every single invididual is very different and I must say I am always very amazed at how everyone has such a beautiful story to tell. From a father of six, to having medical conditions,being bullied due to being obesed as well as day time businessmen all come together to go through this pageant together. No matter what the personal objectives of each individual wants to achieve out of it, I believe it is a beautiful thing to bring people from different backgrounds together.
Last groupshot to end of the Press Conference
Thank you Beam artistes for the invite to attend this press conference and be introduced to this year's Manhunt Singapore 2018 contestants!
Doorgift for the Press Conference from the sponsors!
Follow them on their Manhunt journey on their Manhunt Singapore's social media platforms.
Their Pre-Judging will be on soon so be sure to look out for it!
Facebook: Manhunt Singapore
https://www.facebook.com/manhuntsingapore/
Instagram: @manhuntsingapore
