By Neil Marks Always known to depart from convention, McNeal Enterprises Friday evening launched the Miss Guyana Universe Pageant, and what do you know, the pageant is two weeks away!Rush, rush, rush, and a queen will be crowned and whisked off to Las Vegas to compete with stunning women from all over the world who would have had months preparing. Will this help us to place at a pageant we have been going to for years without any returns? I don’t know.Derek Moore seems to have bagged one of the best group of contestants in years. Even though we are getting a glimpse of them just two weeks before the pageant, they are light on the heels and sharp with the tongue.Miss Guyana Universe 2010 delegates: From left are Cindy Craig,Cheap Baltimore Ravens Jerseys, Mellissa Carter, Crystal Benn, Marsha Chester, Xandra Pierre, Crystelle Mervin, Tamika Henry and Tiffany Isaacs. Mondale Smith,Wholesale China Jerseys, the MC actually asked some questions we didn’t think the ladies would be quick to answer. The questions were honest ones. How do you define ugly? In an age women are looking for all sorts of skin lightening treatments, would you trade your dark skin?Whatever the questions, the ladies were not nervous, surprisingly. It wasn’t an interview. Just an informal chat, and they handled it like it was, not becoming too formal.Immediately, Tamika Henry and Tiffany Isaacs emerged as front-runners. Stately and confident with a good dose of charm, they could easily glide past the others and claim the top spots come July 18.Tamika,Cheap Wholesale Jerseys, 22, aims to become a forensic scientist, and has the goods from the University of Miami to prove she is serious. And University already allowed her to show she was also serious about pageantry, competing in the Miss University of Miami pageant in 2009.Herstelling, East Bank Demerara girl Tiffany, 20, also entered pageants before, winning the Miss North and South Carifesta Pageant in 2007.? She holds a diploma in business studies and she pursues her goal of becoming a marketing executive.But the other constants would be no easy walk over. Xandra Pierre,Cheap Jerseys Wholesale, 18, has chalked up some good scores at the CXC exams and aims to become a civil engineer and a professional dancer.? Runway model Crystelle Mervin, towers at 5 feet,NFL Cheap Jerseys, 9 inches. She wants to eventually become an engineer.Natasha Smith, 26, sees some advantage in her being a television news anchor on NCN, but knows she can’t just ride on that. She hopes one day to work in the international media. And what do you know she was in a pageant before, placing as a finalist in the Miss Essequibo pageant back in 2003.Crystal Benn, 20, wants to become the first surgical nurse in Guyana. She is a second year student at the Georgetown school of nursing. Melissa Carter, 19, is a certified phlebotomist,Wholesale Football Jerseys, with the career goal of becoming a pediatrician.Cindy Craig, 19, is studying accountancy to one day become a chartered accountant. Marsha Chester, 20, was seen in the Miss Guyana Talented Teen Pageant and in Miss Jamzone 2009, but she hopes to make it big.Rushuana Harris, 20, was also in the Miss Talented Teen pageant, placing as a finalist in 2004.? She aims to become a professional model.According to the organisers, the winner stands to benefit from $2.5 million in cash and prizes plus the right to represent Guyana at the Miss Universe pageant billed for the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, Las Vegas on August 23.