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Miss Peru Takes Miss World Crown in China Pageant
SANYA, China, Dec 4
Twenty-year-old Miss Peru was crowned Miss World
on Saturday in a southern Chinese resort town, as China looks to
become the regular host of an event that would have once been deemed
heretical by its Communist leaders.
Maria
Julia Mantilla Garcia, dressed in a shimmering blue backless dress,
burst into tears at the announcement, after winning the hearts of the
audience saying the thing she would miss most about the competition
was its host town, Sanya.
“I don’t speak very good English. But the smiles of the
 people
transcend language,” she said through an interpreter.
Viewers from around
the world called in to vote for contestants, choosing Garcia over
runner-up Miss Dominican Republic, Claudia Julissa Cruz Rodriguez. The
second runner-up was Miss U.S.A., Nancy Randall.
This was the second
year Miss World was held in Sanya, on the semi-tropical island of
Hainan, and organizers have applied to hold the event at the same
venue next year, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Miss China, 20-year-old accountancy student Jin Yang, said it was her
dream to win on home soil, but she was eliminated after the final 15.
Residents embraced the event, with one 80-year-old woman watching the
rehearsal on Friday with her daughter-in-law.
“It is a great
pleasure to watch all these beauties coming from the world to the
southernmost place of China,” she was quoted as saying on the China
News Web site. The victorious Miss Peru is studying to be a high
school teacher and enjoys painting, film and dance. |
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