Miss World 2009

Miss World 2009
Date	December 12, 2009
Venue	Sandton Convention Center, Johannesburg, South Africa and London, England
Broadcaster	SABC
Debuts	Armenia
Withdrawals	Cayman Islands, St. Kitts & Nevis
Returns	Estonia, Liberia, Luxembourg, Macau China, Macedonia FYRO, Malawi, Nepal, Panama, Romania, Slovenia, Suriname, Switzerland, Tahiti - French Polynesia, Tonga

Miss World 2009, the 59th Miss World pageant, will be held on December 12, 2009 at the Sandton Convention Center, Johannesburg, South Africa and the pageant will begin from London, England, where the contestants are expected to arrive on November 7, 2009. Ksenia Sukhinova of Russia will crown her successor at the end of this event. About 120 contestants are expected to attend the event.

Expected contestants

As of October 4 2009, 94 delegates had been selected.

Nation	Contestant	Age	Height (cm)	Height (ft)	Hometown
Angola	Jesinalda Silva	21	175	5'8"	Cabinda
Argentina	Evelyn Lucía Manchón	23	176	5'9.5"	San Luis
Aruba	Nuraisa Lispiër	24	176	5'9.5"	San Nicolaas
Australia	Sophie Lavers	24	172	5'8"	Canberra
Austria	Anna Hammel	22	170	5'7"	Linz
Bahamas	Joanna Brown	18	183	6'0"	Grand Bahama
Barbados	Leah Marville	23
Belarus	Lyubov Yakovina	18	177	5'9.5"	Minsk
Belgium	Zeynep Sever	20	176	5'9.5"	Sint-Jans-Molenbeek
Bolivia	Flavia Foianini	21	176	5'9"	Santa Cruz
Bosnia & Herzegovina	Andrea Šarac	18	176	5'9.5"	Gacko
Botswana	Sumaiyah Marope	23	175	5'8"	Gaborone
Brazil	Luciana Bertolini	24	176	5'9.5"	Belo Horizonte
Bulgaria	Antonia Petrova	25	180	5'11"	Pernik
Canada	Lena Ma	21	179	5'10.5"	North York
Colombia	Daniela Ramos	21	175	5'9"	Bogotá
Costa Rica	Angie Alfaro	18	174	5'8"	Alajuela
Croatia	Ivana Vasilj	21	180	5'11"	Cologne
Curaçao	Chantalle Thomassen	24	180	5'11"	Willemstad
Cyprus	Christalla Tsiali	19	169	5'6.5"	Larnaca
Dominican Republic	Ana Contreras	25	169	5'6"	Bayaguana
Ecuador	Gabriela Ulloa	22	180	5'11"	Esmeraldas
Egypt	Yara Naoum	21	176	5'9.5"	Cairo
El Salvador	Elena Tedesco	18	165	5'5.5"	San Salvador
England	Rachel Christie	21	178	5'10"	London
Ethiopia	Lula Gezu Weldegebriel	20	175	5'9"	Addis Ababa
Finland	Sanna Kankaanpää	23	173	5'8"	Turku
France	Chloé Mortaud	19	180	5'11"	Bénac
Germany	Alessandra Alores	25	170	5'7"	Cologne
Ghana	Mawuse Appea	22	180	5'11"	Legon
Gibraltar	Kaiane Aldorino	23	174	5'9.5"	Gibraltar
Greece	Alkisti Anyfanti	23	176	5'9.5"	Athens
Guadeloupe	Béatrice Blaise	20	180	5'11"	Basse-Terre
Guatemala	Angélica Guevara	22	166	5'5"	Ayutla
Honduras	Blaise Masey	20	170	5'7"	San Pedro Sula
Hong Kong China	Sandy Lau	23	160	5'3.5"	Hong Kong
Hungary	Orsolya Serdült	22	175	5'9"	Budapest
Iceland	Guðrún Dögg Rúnarsdóttir	18	182	5'11.5"	Akranes
India	Pooja Chopra	24	173	5'8"	Pune
Indonesia	Karenina Sunny Halim	23	167	5'6"	Jakarta
Ireland	Laura Patterson	19	173	5'8"	Derry
Israel	Adi Rodnitzky	20	170	5'7.5"	Tel Aviv
Italy	Alice Taticchi	19	184	6'0.5"	Perugia
Jamaica	Kerrie Baylis	20	179	5'10"	Surrey
Japan	Eruza Sasaki	21	174	5'8.5"	Tottori
Kazakhstan	Symbat Madyarova	18	175	5'8"	Almaty
Korea	Kim Joo-ri	21	172	5'7"	Seoul
Latvia	Ieva Lase	21	178	5'10"	Riga
Lebanon	Martine Andraos	19	175	5'9"	Beirut
Liberia	Shu-rina Wiah	21	175	5'9"	Monrovia
Luxembourg	Diana Nilles	21	183	5'10.5"	Walferdange
Malawi	Joyce Mphande	20	182	5'11.5"	Lilongwe
Malaysia	Thanuja Ananthan	23	180	5'11"	-
Malta	Shanel Debattista	23	171	5'7"	Pieta
Martinique	Ingrid Littré	21	178	5'10"	Fort-de-France
Mauritius	Anaïs Veerapatren	23	178	6'0"	Curepipe
Mexico	Perla Beltrán	22	178	5'10"	Guamúchil
Mongolia	Saruul B.	-	-	-	Ulan Bator
Montenegro	Marijana Pokrajac	22	179	5'10.5"	Podgorica
Namibia	Happie Ntelamo	21	185	6'1"	Katima Mulilo
Nepal	Zenisha Moktan	20	168	5'6"	Kathmandu
New Zealand	Magdalena Schoeman	19	172	5'8"	Christchurch
Nigeria	Glory Chuku	24	178	6'0.5"	Lafia
Northern Ireland	Cherie Gardiner	18	182	5'11.5"	Bangor
Norway	Sara Skjoldnes	18	170	5'7"	Skien
Panama	Nadege Herrera	22	182	5'11.5"	Panama City
Paraguay	Tamara Sosa	20	182	5'11.5"	Asunción
Peru	Claudia Carrasco	21	174	5'8.5"	Cuzco
Philippines	Marie-Ann Umali	22	173	5'8"	Batangas City
Poland	Anna Jamróz	22	179	5'10.5"	Rumia
Puerto Rico	Jennifer Colón	21	173	5'8"	Bayamon
Romania	Loredana Violeta Salanta	18	178	5'10"	Bistrita
Russia	Ksenia Shipilova	18	175	5'8.5"	Ivanovo
Scotland	Katharine Brown	20	180	5'11"	Dunblane
Serbia	Jelena Marković	21	175	5'9"	Užice
Sierra Leone	Mariatu Kargbo	24	173	5'8"	Freetown
Singapore	TBA	-	-	-	-
Slovakia	Barbora Franeková	20	178	5'10"	Žilina
South Africa	Tatum Keshwar	25	181	5'11.5"	Durban
Spain	Carmen Laura García	22	180	5'11"	Pinos Puente
Sri Lanka	Gamya Wijayadasa	23	165	5'5"	Malabe
Suriname	Zoureena Rijger	18	175	5'9"	Paramaribo
Eswatini	Nompilo Mncina	23	178	5'10"	Mbabane
Switzerland	Linda Fäh	21	177	5'10"	Benken
Tahiti - French Polynesia	Nanihi Bambridge	19	171	5'7.5"	Papeete
Tanzania	Miriam Gerald	21			Mwanza
Trinidad & Tobago	Ashanna Arthur	21	173	5'8"	Glencoe
Turkey	Ebru Şam	19	175	5'9"	Germany
Uganda	Maria Namiiro	21	-	-	London
Ukraine	Evgeniya Tulchevska	20	178	5'10"	Dnipropetrovsk
Uruguay	Cinthia D'Ottone	21	180	5'10.5"	Montevideo
United States	Brittany Mason	22	178	5'10.5"	Anderson
Venezuela	María Milagros Véliz	26	178	5'10"	Guacara
Wales	Lucy Whitehouse	22	168	5'6"	Barry
Zimbabwe	Vanessa Sibanda	21	177	5'10"	Harare

Upcoming national pageants

Date	Country	Pageant
October 2009	Guyana	Miss Guyana World
October 2009	Netherlands	Miss Nederlands World
October 2009	Portugal	Miss Mundo Portugal
October 3, 2009	Barbados	Miss Barbados World
October 3, 2009	Belize	Miss World Belize
October 3, 2009	Kenya	Miss World Kenya
October 3, 2009	Tanzania	Miss Tanzania
October 6, 2009	China PR	Miss China World
October 9, 2009	Moldova	Miss Moldova
October 10, 2009	Georgia	Miss Georgia
October 11, 2009	Lithuania	Mis Lietuva
October 17, 2009	Macau China	Miss Macau
October 17, 2009	Thailand	Miss Thailand World
October 24, 2009	Czech Republic	Miss České Republiky

Dates to be announced

• Albania
• Antigua & Barbuda
• Armenia
• Chile
• Chinese Taipei
• Congo Democratic Republic
• Denmark
• Estonia

• Macedonia FYRO
• St. Lucia
• Seychelles
• Slovenia
• Sweden
• Tonga
• Vietnam
• Zambia

National pageant notes

Debuting countries and territories

• Armenia - According to the official Miss World website, Armenia will compete at Miss World for the first time this year.

Returning countries and territories

Year last competed	Country
1986	Tonga
1990	Luxembourg
1997	Macau China
2005	Switzerland
2006	Tahiti, Liberia
2007	Estonia, Macedonia FYRO, Nepal, Panama, Romania, Slovenia, Suriname

Withdrawing countries and territories

• Cayman Islands - The Cayman Islands will not send a representative this year due to lack of funding and sponsorship for the national pageant.
• St. Kitts & Nevis - Venetta Zakers, the winner of the 2009 Miss World St. Kitts-Nevis pageant, will not compete in Miss World 2009 due to communication problems between her and the national pageant organization. However, the pageant will be held again in 2010 to select the representative for Miss World 2010.

Replaced

• Singapore - The original winner Ris Low has decided to back out of the finals at Miss World 2009. Her decision comes after a slew of negative media reports, where she incurred the ire of the public for her poor English, according to local radio 938 Live. Later, news of her conviction for credit card fraud in May also surfaced, which put her in the spotlight again. She was sentenced to two years' probation for credit card fraud. There was controversy on whether she could or should represent the country. She says that ERM World, organizer of Miss Singapore World pageant, has been informed and supports her decision. The new representative of Singapore for this year will be announced soon.

Other notes

• Zeynep Sever (Belgium), Chloé Mortaud (France), Martine Andraos (Lebanon), Anaïs Veerapatren (Mauritius), Happie Ntelamo (Namibia), Tatum Keshwar (South Africa), and Cinthia D'ottone (Uruguay) competed in Miss Universe 2009 in Nassau, Bahamas on August 23, 2009, where South Africa and France placed in the Top 10, and Belgium placed in the Top 15.
• Symbat Madyarova (Kazakhstan), Kim Joo-ri (Korea), and Linda Fäh (Switzerland) also will compete Miss Universe 2010.
• Karence DeCosta, the reigning St. Thomas Carnival Queen 2009 and a possible candidate to represent the American Virgin Islands at Miss World 2009, was killed in a car accident on June 8, 2009, just hours after her graduation.
• Aruba: Nuraisa Lispiër competed in Miss International 2008 in Macau. Although she did not reached the Top 12, she won the Best National Costume award.
• Brazil: Luciana Bertolini is sister of Miss World 1998 semifinalist and Miss Photogenic, Adriana Reis.
• Egypt: Yara Naoum also competed in Miss Universe 2008 in Nha Trang, Vietnam. She did not place in the top 15.
• England: For the first time in 59 years, England will send a black delegate to Miss World, Rachel Christie, who also is the niece of the famous former athlete Linford Christie.
• Germany: Alessandra Alores competed in Miss Universe 2003 under her real name Oleksandra Vodiannykova, but she was unplaced. She also competed but unplaced in Miss International 2003. However, she competed and placed in Miss Europe 2003 and Miss Intercontinental 2003, in addition to win the Top Model of the World 2007 contest. She was born in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR.
• Honduras: Blaise Masey competed in Nuestra Belleza Mundo El Salvador 2008 (Miss World El Salvador 2008) finishing as the 2nd Runner-up.
• Hong Kong China: Sandy Lau is former Miss Hong Kong 2002 Tiffany Lam's cousin.
• Indonesia: Karenina Sunny Halim is half American and half Indonesian. She is the first Miss Indonesia of dual origin. Her mother was born in Montana, United States.
• Malta: Shanel Debattista competed in Miss Italia Nel Mondo 2007 in Jesolo, Italy on June 25, where she was among the Top 25, finishing 24th.
• Peru: Claudia Carrasco competed in Miss Perú Universo 2008. She placed as the 2nd Runner-up.
• Philippines: Marie-Ann Umali is half-Lebanese.
• United States: Brittany Mason won the Miss Indiana USA 2008 pageant and went on to represent Indiana in Miss USA 2008, where she managed to place in the Top 10.

External links

• Miss World Official Website