The Bahamas was beaming with pride well into Monday (December 13) after Chatel O’Brien finished in the top 10 contestants of the 70th Miss Universe grand coronation show in Eilat, Isreal.

Though the 27-year-old ultimately missed out on the finals, O’Brien is the first Bahamian to progress that far into the prestigious pageant and the lone Caribbean representative after two elimination rounds.

O’Brien is a certified youth leader and no stranger to pageantry, according to local media reports, as she has been building up to this moment for more than eight years.

Then 19, O’Brien was first runner up in the Miss Bahamas Universe competition in 2013. She returned a year later to Miss World Bahamas, where she finished second runner up.

She would not be denied again, however, as she won Miss World Bahamas in 2015.

Speaking with Bahamian journalist Jared Higgs, a gracious O’Brien thanked the country for supporting her.

With an aura of humility, she said, “I follow a long line of Bahamian women who were spectacular and incredible in their own way and though they may not have made it into the semifinals it doesn’t take away from the fact that they paved the way for me to actually be here.”

“We can only get to a certain place unless someone has paved the way and now that they’ve done that for me, and now that I have paved the way into the semifinals and up to the top ten, that means there will be someone behind me that’s going to take it even further,” she added.

Hosted yet again by American actor Steve Harvey, India’s Harnaaz Sandhu won the coveted crown ahead of runners up Nadia Ferreira from Paraguay and Lalela Mswane of South Africa.

Sandhu is the third Indian woman to ever claim the Miss Universe title.