Irina Antonenko, Miss Russia 2010

Biography
Irina Antonenko was born on 1 September 1991 in the city of Yekaterinburg located on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains. Her parents, Natalia and Igor Antonenko, were both employees of the police. She completed her high school education in school No. 156. According to the school director, Irina was "a very modest and polite girl." Whilst studying at the school, Antonenko entered her first beauty pageant, in which she failed to make the top three. After finishing high school, she began to study finance at the Ural Finance and Jurisprudence Institute. Around the same time, she also started her modelling career. In 2009, she won the regional Miss Yekaterinburg beauty contest.
On 6 March 2010, Antonenko was crowned Miss Russia 2010 in a contest held in Moscow. The crown was handed over to her by outgoing titleholder Sofia Rudieva. In addition to the crown, she received a cash prize of $100,000, which she plans to spend mostly on charity, to help children who are ill. The jury concluded that there is more to Russia's new beauty than meets the eye, and that she has the brains to match the looks.
After her coronation as Miss Russia, she started modelling for the world famous designer Philipp Plein, and also participated in fashion shows by such designers as Olga Deffi, Alina Assi, Ilya Shiyan and Vyacheslav Zaitsev, one of the most well-known Russian fashion designers.