The wrong beauty contestant was crowned Miss Canada Universe this weekend.
According to E! Online , pageant organizers originally gave the award to Denise Garrido of Ontario. Garrido wore the crown for about 24 hours until the judges realized that they crowned the wrong contestants.
Organizers said that Garrido was accidentally ranked in first place due to a human error. The real winner was Riza Santos, of Alberta, who ended the competition as the first runner up.
The Miss Canada Universe pageant released a statement, saying: “This is an unfortunate circumstance where a human error was made, and in such a situation, as difficult as it is, it is only right to correct the error.”
Garrido, who won Miss Earth Canada in 2008 and Miss World Canada in 2010, said that she was heartbroken when she heard that she didn’t actually win the Miss Canada Universe contest.
Garrido said : “My heart sank. I was so sad.”
Still, Garrido said that she didn’t have any hard feelings against Santos or the organizers of the pageant.
A spokesman for Garrido said : “She totally understands. You can do the right thing and correct it, or do the wrong thing and try to cover it up.”
Here’s a video of Denise Garrido, the wrong contestant, getting crowned Miss Canada Universe.
After the error was fixed, Garrido was ranked fourth by the pageant organizers.
Miss Canada Universe said in a statement: “We would like to offer our sincere apology to Denise Garrido for this human error discovered while validating the results. Miss Garrido’s example and grace represents all we look for at Miss Universe Canada. We have no doubt she will continue to succeed in her endeavors and we wish her well. We truly hope she remains a strong part of the Miss Universe Canada Organization.”
Riza Santos is the new Miss Universe Canada 2013. twitter.com/allumski/statu…
— AllumSki.com (@allumski) May 28, 2013
