Supermodel Tyra Banks gives Catriona Gray recognition for her viral ‘lava walk’

FILE: “Stand with me prayer warriors.” (Photo: @catriona_gray/Instagram)

In anticipation for the finale night happening on the morning of Monday, December 17 in Bangkok, Thailand, the Philippines’ representative for the 67th Miss Universe pageant Catriona Gray continues to generate headlines with her viral ‘lava walk’ that she hinted during the preliminary competition last December 13.

Her most recent admirer is supermodel and creator of show America’s Next Top Model Tyra Banks, who retweeted the video of Catriona strutting down the runway captioned, “I mean, Pinoy Power to the Max!”

Catriona shares with TV 5 that she was in disbelief and had to double check if Tyra’s response was true, stating, “When I saw the comments on the phone, I was just like, ‘Is this real? Is this really Tyra?’ And then I checked the link she was commenting on and it was my video and I was like, ‘Oh my god!’”

Along with Tyra’s reaction, Catriona thought that the amount of buzz that her walk is getting “is insane,” reporting, “Even after preliminary, to see that much impact, I even saw myself like at a Thai TV station and Miss India came up to me and said she was like one of the Indian newspapers has even published about your walk.”

With the coronation night soon approaching, Catriona says she is “really going to give [her] best” as she tries to best it out against 93 other contestants from around the world. “I just pray that the judges will really get a sense of who I am. Because we are on stage and I believe there’s an aspect of luck is there. If it’s your time, it’s your time. It’s someone’s fate, someone’s destiny,” she said, “If it happens to be mine, I just pray that I’ll be able to show the universe who Catriona is. And also show them what the Philippines is, who we are.”