A glamorous finalist in a national beauty contest in Kazakhstan has dramatically confessed that he is a man.
Ilay Dyagilev, 22, fooled organisers by posing as Alina Alieva, beating some 4,000 applicants to the last stage of the competition.
The male model said: ‘My friends and I, we had a debate on beauty, and I decided to take part in the pageant. I’ve always been a champion of natural beauty.
‘You can see that many young women look identical, the same make-up, the same style – and they believe that they are beautiful if they follow trends. I don’t think so.’
Ilay Dyagilev (right), 22, fooled organisers of a beauty contest in Kazakhstan by posing as Alina Alieva (left), beating some 4,000 applicants to the last stage of the competition
Dyagilev (pictured) said he decided to pose as a woman in the competition after having a debate with his friends about beauty competitions
But he decided to tell the organisers of Miss Virtual Kazakhstan that they had been conned, as had online voters from all over the ex-Soviet state.
‘I came through to the finale and decided to expose the identity of Arina Alieva when I realised it had gone too far.
‘At the very beginning there were around 4,000 applications from across Kazakhstan, but I got to the final,’ he said.
The organisers said they were ‘shocked’ by the revelation of the man from Almaty.
he decided to tell the organisers of Miss Virtual Kazakhstan that they had been conned, as had online voters from all over the ex-Soviet state
The organisers said they were ‘shocked’ by the revelation of the man from Almaty. Ilay Dyagilev (right), made up the identity of female model Alina Alieva (left) to take part in the contest
The imposter came through a semi-final which whittled the numbers down from 142 to 16
Ilay’s confession led to him being removed from the finalists and replaced by Aikerim Temirkhanova, 18.
She has scored 1975 votes in the semi final compared with 2012 for the fake Arina Alieva.
The imposter came through a semi-final which whittled the numbers down from 142 to 16.
Ilay’s confession led to him being removed from the finalists and replaced by Aikerim Temirkhanova (pictured), 18
In neighbouring Russia last year, male student Andrey Nagorny (left), 20, posed as a lingerie model (right) and won a contest. The ‘striking brunette’ used his girlfriend’s lingerie and makeup and called himself Ms Avacado
In neighbouring Russia last year, male student Andrey Nagorny, 20, posed as a lingerie model and won a contest.
The ‘striking brunette’ used his girlfriend’s lingerie and makeup and called himself Ms Avacado.
After the organisers discovered the truth in the contest on the Pacific island of Sakhalin, he was stripped of the title and prize.