Pageant News Archives @ Rahul's World of Pageants: Part II

Nonetheless, the competition continued, with Azra receiving a gold medal in a tie for the Women's section.

Mlle. Kiranne was named the first-ever Miss India France winner in a pageant held on September 6th in Paris. The Runners-Up were Arti and Veronica. Last year's hand-chosen delegate, Nidhya Paalakaria, was France's first delegate at the Miss India Worldwide Pageant.

Pageants are in a tough situation due to a apathetic Australian public, but this special event managed to gather 18 contestants, plenty of sponsors and publicity in the form of coverage by the leading daily Sydney Morning Herald.

Thanks to Woojae Chung

The First Runner-Up was Miss India Arizona, Rekha Muddaraj from Phoenix, while the Second Runner-Up was Miss India New York, Subrina Dhummi from Poughskeepie. The show featured Indian popstar Anaida and featured western eveningwear, indianwear, talent and question/answer segments. The Indian-American pageant world has been expanding, with state pageants being held for at least 25 states.

Thanks to Arthy Kumar-Chadha

Completing the finalists were Turkey's Kyvanc Tatlitud and Margarita Island's Efrain Vera, and finishing off the semi-finalist group were the delegates from Panama and Greece. 32 contestants participated in the event. Indian actress Rani Mukherjee was among the judges, along with British celebrities Leon Herbert, Diana Ukawa and Roger Moore.

On a more somber note, last year's Miss Swaziland Nozipho Shabangu was involved in a car accident last Wednesday, August 20th, which almost saw her losing a leg and her upper lip. She had the accident while driving her car (one of her prizes) from a charity function, when a van cut her off with no notice, causing her to crash into it. She called up her boyfriend and was immediately taken to a hospital, where she will hopefully get to keep 'all' of herself when released. She was not present at the Miss Swaziland finals, and won't be able to attend a Parliament nomination session the day after, either. Shabangu won the Miss World Scholarship last year and was currently in college.

First Runner-Up was 22 year-old Rabee'a Yeung Lok Ting, a 1.63 m-tall customer services officer from Vancouver, Canada. She will do the honor of representing Hong Kong at Miss World 2003 in nearby Sanya, China. The Second Runner-Up was 21 year-old Priscilla Chik Doi Doi, a 1.65 m-tall college student pursuing her Masters' Degree, and she will be sent to the 2003 Miss International Beauty Pageant in Japan this October. Ivy Tam Ching Man and Carrie Lee Ka Yee were the remaining finalists. 12 finalists were chosen through castings and preliminaries.
Thanks to Miss Hong Kong Beauties and

The 2003 Miss World United States Pageant has signed a deal with Hairmax International, fast-movers in the salon industry, to be official corporate sponsors for the event. In addition, Rene Buenrostro, who has worked with several reality tv shows, is developing a state-of-the-art reality pageant series for the event for its national broadcast.

The 2003 Miss World Bahamas Pageant has been cancelled, according to the organizers. Apparently, poor promotion of the pageant led to a lack of sponsors and contestants for the event, which was scheduled for the end of July.

Controversy arose in the Miss World New Zealand fiasco, with one of the contestants, Samantha Strange, furious with the mistreatment of the delegates. She claims that the organizers underfed them so that they would not gain any weight and constantly yelled at them. She was upset that while she had to win a local title to get to the national final, she found out that many other girls just paid their way into the contest. Organizers say that the delegates were informed upon their arrival that the winner would not participate in the prestigious Miss World competition, and that they could not say anything about it to the press. Girls were told they could withdraw with a full refund, and several contestants took up the offer.

Panama is coming close to having no representative in this year's Miss World Pageant. With the movement of the pageant to November, which will only allow them to choose their 2004 representative, discussion took place over a contestant being handpicked, and the hot favorite was Srta. Panama 2002-2003 and Miss Universe semi-finalist Stefanie de Roux. However, due to a certain financial stipulation by the organizers about the representative paying for several things, including her own airfare, many girls have refused to go forth. Official confirmation on the news is being awaited by the local committee.

Rumors were flying back and forth about Joyceline Montero Garcia, the new Miss Mundo de Puerto Rico, having purchased the crown with the help of her wealthy family. Dirty laundry was aired in public by First Runner-Up, Miss Cidra, Angieliz Vázquez, who says that the judges were influenced by Joyceline's past pageant experience, and that she was most upset by the fact that the first 250 tickets were sold to Joyceline's supporters, a fact that Joyceline did not deny. Miss Cidra was pleased, she says, that the audience in the end was screaming for her when Joyceline was crowned and the girls told her that she was the true winner, and that behind the scenes, she did not find Joyceline to be a genuinely nice person, either. She is taking a hiatus from her studies due to financial difficulties for the time being. Joyceline Montero simply responded to the press by stating that she hoped Angieliz would come to terms with the decision easily.

Furthermore: The winner of this year's 'Miss World New Zealand' contest, Amber Peebles, will represent New Zealand at Miss International 2003 in Tokyo, Japan, while the First Runner-Up Katie Price will go to the Miss Earth Pageant in the Philippines. The organizers claimed that it would be better to have two representatives abroad instead of one, due to the high price of attending Miss World, and said that the girls were very excited. However, other notes indicate that the girls may have been forced to not say anything at the risk of losing their titles. A consumer institute advisor claims that the girls may be able to sue for being misled about the opportunity to represent New Zealand at the Miss World Pageant. It is assumed that the nation will not be represented at the said event.

About a week later, she turned up and denied the allegations that she was kidnapped or had run away to avoid having to attend a British University, for which she was granted a scholarship. However, she claims that she still wants to go and study abroad and that she was merely 'on vacation with relatives' during this time. The details of the story are confusing and constantly mixed up, so one can only wonder what the real story is about the beauty queen gone missing. Perhaps the press will never really know!

The first runner-up was Alicia Selby, Miss Tennessee Teen USA 2003. Miss Michigan, Alicia Jaros, was second runner-up; Miss Massachusetts, Jacqueline Bruno, was third runner-up; and Miss New Jersey, Jacklyn Pezzotta, was fourth runner-up.

Rounding out the top 10 were Brittany Ann Jackson, Miss Alaska; Camille Peraro, Miss Hawaii; Amanda Nunnelley, Miss Kentucky; Marisa Christina Field, Miss North Dakota; and Jasmine Colleen Jorgensen, Miss Washington.

Completing the Top Fifteen: Indiana, Maine, Iowa, Texas and Oklaoma

Miss Kenya 2002, Maryanne Kariuki, and Srta. Bolivia 2001-2002, Paola Coimbra, were special guests at the event. The show was professionally done and went without a hitch, while the winner walked away with a Toyota Corsa saloon car, about $5,000 cash and all expenses for the 2003 Miss World Pageant, to be held in China in December.
Courtesy of the Monitor Online

MR. WORLD 2003: Gustavo Gianetti, Brazil
First Runner-Up: Assaad Tarabay, Lebanon
Second Runner-Up: Fabien Hauquier, Belgium
Finalists: Jose Resendez, Mexico and Ronnie Morris, Barbados
Semi-Finalists: ARUBA (Kelvin Halley), VENEZUELA (Andres Mistage), CHINA (Shuang Jian Zhou), MALTA (Matthew Saliba),SINGAPORE (Julian Lic-Hua)

Rhodri Jenkins, Mr. Wales, was chosen as Global Beauties' Webmasters' Choice, which included the participation of this web site. Mr. Aruba, Kelvin Osmond Halley, won the overall online voting which counted as one of the judges.
Thanks to Jimmy Steele and Jason Smith

Manisha Bais was awarded Miss Best Smile and Mehak Dhingra bagged the Miss Beautiful Hair award. Nidhee Bhatt of Burlington, North Carolina won the Miss Photogenic award. The entertainment of the evening was provided by everyone from dancers to ramp walkers in a stellar fashion show. Rahul Singh's group performed dance numbers, along with Sonia Performing Arts. The fashion show was presented by Pehchaan Boutique and Sahil. Vocal performances included the voices of Srilekha Mohanty and Anil Jha.

SONY Entertainment Television was the exclusive grand sponsor of the event, and Miss India 1996 and international model Mehar Bhasin was the emcee. The event was broadcast live through SONY in the US, UK, Canada, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.
Thanks to the India Tribune

- Gauhar Khan (Miss India Int'l 2002)
- Shonal Rawat (Three-title prelim winner and finalist, Miss India 2003)
- Candice Pinto Gladrags Megamodel 2000, Miss Tourism International 2001)
- Deepti Gujral (Gladrags Megamodel 2003, Third Runner-Up Miss Intercontinental 2003)
- Nafisa Joseph (Miss India Universe 1997)
- Uma Chiplunker (Finalist, Miss India 1998)
- Megha Kawale (Miss India Talent Winner, 2001)
- Jaesse Randhawa (Miss India Top 5', 1994)
- Tapur Chatterjee (Finalist, Miss India 2001)
- Diandra Soares (Finalist, Miss India 1998)
- Fleur Xavier (Miss India-International 1996)
- Shonali Rosario (Miss India Top 5', 1996)
- Bhawna Sharma (Semi-Finalist, Miss India 2000)
- Zulfi Syed (Gladrags Manhunt Winner 1997)
- Rajneesh Duggal (Mr. India 2003)
Among others. Interestingly enough, it seems that out of tradition, none of this year's Femina Miss India winner has been invited, a notable showing of the increasing division between Indian pageantry and the ramp model world. 6'-tall Shonal Rawat, who made her major modelling debut with this event (One of the new faces chosen in a casting), was a Top 9' finalist in Femina Miss India this year and won three special awards. Originally was Kolkata, she says that she reached her 'saturation point' in the modelling world there and took the dive to Mumbai to take advantage of the industry. Among other things, she needed to drop weight to make the grade in the competitive market.

It is almost confirmed that due to the late date of the contest, Venezuela's representatives to Miss World and Miss International can not possibly be chosen then, so Venezuela's representatives to Miss Universe and Miss World 2004 will be chosen in this pageant. The following representatives have been designated:

Amara Elyn Barroeta Seijas, a 20 year-old, 5'11" student who represented Distrito Capital in last year's Miss Venezuela Pageant, will officially take on the title of Miss World Venezuela 2003. She was the big favorite last year but fell to a surprise winner, and started training for Miss World already, in order to make it to the 2003 pageant in China.

Goizeder Victoria Azua Barrios, a 19 year-old, 5'10", industrial relations student, has been designated as Venezuela's delegate to the Miss International Pageant in Tokyo this coming October 26th. Many will be familiar with Goizeder as last year's Miss World Venezuela and a Top Ten finalist at the Miss World Pageant in London.

In addition, Driva Cedeño, who finished Second Runner-Up at last year's Miss Venezuela Pageant as 'Miss Nueva Esparta', will apparently be their delegate to the Miss Earth Pageant in Manila. She is being sent by the Global Beauty Venezuela Organization, under special invitation.

- Meanwhile, Mister Venezuela 2003 is under way (http://www.mistervenezuela.com/) and will be held on July 26th, in order for the winner to be present at Mr. World arrivals at the beginning of August. The event will be incorporated into the traditional variety show "Super Sabado Sensacional".

* Of course, all of this will eventually be confirmed by the organization itself in the months to come, so it remains un-official but highly possible at this time.
Thanks to Belleza Venezolana for this news! Visit BV for the latest on Mr. Venezuela and Miss Venezuela 2003 information.

Natalie (Caretaker Miss Gibraltar) will be flying to Paris this week where she will join the other 37 contestants competing in Miss Europe 2003 (Which edition of Miss Europe is unknown, but it is assumedly the better-known one run by Mondial Events). The girls will go to Guadeloupe and will be involved in photo shoots, filming, sightseeing and various other events already planned for the contestants. Later this year Natalie will then return to Paris for two weeks of rehearsals and the finals of Miss Europe 2003. The show will take place on 12th September live from Disneyland Paris.

The rest of the semi-finalists came from: Brazil, Germany, South Africa, Curacao, Turkey, Peru and Greece. Special award were given out: A beauty award to Miss Denmark; The Best Face award went to Miss Colombia; Miss Photogenic went to Miss Germany; The Miss Congeniality prize went to Miss Bolivia. The gala featured a live fashion show before the coronation.
Thanks to Michael Knittel for additional info

Contestants interested in entering must pay: A 75$ application fee, $245 pageant entry fee and a $275 sponsorship fee for a total of $595, and after August 1st an aggregate fee of $795. They must be American citizens between the ages of 17 and 24, and be willing to give up their time for the national event, as no state events will take place. Former titleholders in other pageants can compete at their own free will as long as they do not currently hold the said title. More rules and regulations and entry requirements are available online at: Miss World U.S.'s official web site.

The four-day event will be taped for a new reality television show as well as for a two-hour special broadcast of the finals where Miss World U.S. will be chosen. a phenomenon in some other countries, viewers will be able to find out whats the girls are like onstage and offstage. If all things run smoothly, this will be the first 'real' pageant since 1994, when the event was televised by a national network and run by the famous Guyrex duo.
Thanks to the Organization and Peter Kladka

19 year-old Mehrnoosh Dehaghani was First Runner-Up and 19 year-old Tori Saunders was Second Runner-Up

News from Belfast Telegraph; Photo by Miss Northern Ireland