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Miss World 2015: Mireia Lalaguna Royo Of Spain Crowned Winner

By Rahul Srinivas
Published on: 07:09 PST, Dec 19, 2015

Spanish participant Mireia Lalaguna Royo has been named the winner of the Miss World 2015 competition held Saturday night in China. According to ABC News, the runners up in the competition were Sofia Nikitchuk of Russia who took the second position, and Indonesia’s Maria Harfanti who took the third place. The Miss World 2015 competition was held at a resort in the southern Chinese island of Sanya.

Twenty-three-year-old Mireia Lalaguna Royo faced stiff competition from 114 other countries across the globe and also happens to be the first Spanish winner of the Miss World pageant, which has been held since 1963. Lalaguna is a current student of pharmacy and wishes to continue her studies in the field of nutrition. Her long-term goal is to establish a nutrition and dietetics business to find alternative health solutions. She has also worked as a model. Lalaguna also happens to be a trained musician who is adept at playing the piano. Her official bio on the Miss World 2015 page confirms that she has studied up to grade 8 in Musical Language, Harmony and Piano at the Conservatory of the Lyceum of Barcelona. Mireia also loves to travel and has so far visited several countries.

The judges were impressed with her ability of public speaking and she also stood first in the top model contest segment of Miss World 2015. Her crowing was announced in real time on the official Twitter handle of Miss World 2015.

The competition was also marred by a controversy wherein a participant from Canada, Anastasia Lin, was denied entry into China owing to her views on human rights violations in China. Lin was prevented from boarding a flight to Sanya from Hong Kong last month after the Chinese authorities found about her vociferous campaign against human rights violations in the country. To further anger the Chinese government, she is also a follower of the Falun Gong meditation practice, which was outlawed by China in 1999. This also ensured that Lin was a vocal critic of Chinese religious policy as well. Lin had also claimed that after it became clear that she would represent Canada at this year’s Miss World 2015 pageant in China, security agents from China visited her and intimidated her to remain silent. She, however, refused to be bogged down and in the end, was unable t participate in this year’s competition.

This is the seventh time that a Miss World competition was held in China. That is an impressive number considering the fact that the first competition there was held only in 2003. Over the years, by hosting pageants like the Miss World competition, China has attempted to project itself as a modern, peaceful nation. That image has, however, taken a pounding owing to this year’s controversy involving Anastasia Lin. Strangely, both the Chinese government officials and Miss World 2015 organizers have remained mum over the controversy.

Last year’s Miss World competition was also in the news for all the wrong reasons. One of the contestants for the Miss World 2014 title was murdered one month before the competition. The contestant, Miss Honduras Maria Jose Alvarado, was allegedly killed by her own boyfriend. She was killed along with her sister in the town of Santa Barbara.

Did you watch the Miss World 2015 competition? Do you think Mireia Lalaguna Royo was indeed the right choice for this year’s winner?

[Image Via Miss World]

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