December 14, 2009 - In the 59th Miss World Final, Miss Mexico is first runner up, followed by South Africa as second runner up. Miss Gibraltar, Kaiane Aldorino has won the coveted crown as Miss World 2009, triumphing out of 112 world's most beautiful and talented young women. This contest was held at GallagherConvention Centre in Johannesburg, City of Gold.
Gibraltar's Kaiane Aldorino was crowned Miss World 2009 in a glittering gala event here, but it was Miss India Pooja Chopra who got some of the loudest applause for bravely taking on the contest despite a broken ankle.
Miss Mexico Perla Beltran finished second, and South Africa's Tatum Keshwar, buoyed by strong support from the home crowd won the third place in the ceremony late on Saturday.
Ms. Chopra also got applause for a video clip showing her efforts to educate girls in India, supporting the save-the-girl child initiative.
Ms. Aldorino, an HR clerk by profession, defeated 111 contestants from across the world to bring her country the Miss World title for the first time.
Earlier, after winning the Beauty with a Purpose round for her project for the girl child, Ms. Chopra automatically qualified to be in the 17 semi-finalists.
She explained in the video how she had invested a third of the funds she had raised during her reign to give more than 600 girls in India a better education.
“I'm speechless! Thank you, Miss [Julia] Morley [Chairman of the Miss World Pageant],” was all a tearful Chopra said after she beat Miss Barbados and Miss Guatemala in that category.
Later the host of the show asked Ms. Chopra to show to television viewers the splint support she had on her leg to prove how brave she had been to get onto the ramp.
However, Ms. Chopra failed to make it to the final seven.
The former Miss World and Bollywood star, Priyanka Chopra, was one of the judges.
“I'm a lot more nervous than the girls,” she said when asked how she felt about helping decide how the life of one young woman would change forever.
“[Watching them] I remembered every moment when I was up there myself [in 2000],” said the former Miss World. The last time India won the title was in 2000 when Ms. Priyanka Chopra brought home the crown.
India has produced five Miss Worlds with Reita Faria winning the title in 1966, followed by Aishwarya Rai in 1994, Diana Hayden in 1997 and Yukta Mookhey 1999, apart from Ms. Chopra.
Venezuela and India have produced the maximum number of Miss Worlds — five each.
Held in Johannesburg for a second consecutive year, the pageant opened with African drummers and traditional dancers as the 112 contestants were introduced on stage with children carrying flags representing all the representing nations.
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