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Sunday, October 01, 2006

Czech teen crowned Miss World

By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA | Associated Press

Associated Press Miss Czech Republic Tatana Kucharova, center, was crowned Miss World 2006 on Saturday. Miss Romania Ioana Valentina Boitor, right, was first runner-up and Miss Australia Sabrina Houssami was third.

WARSAW, Poland — Tatana Kucharova, an 18-year-old student from the Czech Republic, won the Miss World 2006 beauty contest Saturday.

Kucharova defeated 103 other women in voting by a panel of judges and television viewers around the world during a two-hour finals ceremony in the Polish capital.

First runner-up in the 56th edition of the annual beauty pageant was Joana Valentina Boitor, a 17-year-old from Romania. Australia’s Sabrina Houssami, 20, was third.

Wearing a long white dress, a teary Kucharova blew kisses to the 2,500 audience members in Warsaw’s Congress Hall after she received her diamond crown from Miss World 2005, Unnur Birna Vilhjalmsdottir of Iceland.

Kucharova, a tall high-school student with long blond hair, was born in Trnava and grew up in the town of Opocno. She told the judges she wants to attend university and then become a model. She likes tennis and horse riding and her personal motto is “Always be an optimist.”

A few white-red-and-blue Czech national flags floated in the cheering audience after the verdict was announced.

The organizers of the pageant said this year’s finals offered the widest-ever participation of voters around the world via the Internet. Votes were also submitted in text messages sent from mobile phones.

HICI Special Report — Women Around the World: Rights and Wrongs

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