Spain grabs Miss World 2015 crown

Spain has grabbed the Miss World 2015 crown, when blonde bombshell Mireia Lalaguna Royo from Barcelona was named the winner of the competition in the southern Chinese island resort of Sanya.

Born November 28 1992, pharmacy student Mireia has become the first person to win the crown for Spain.

Sofia Nikitchuk of Russia was the runner-up and Indonesia’s Maria Harfanti took third place in the Saturday night final following a lengthy competition featuring 114 women. Each had won the right to represent their country in a series of local and regional competitions.

“I think this is a good decision, because Miss World is not looking just for our body, they are looking for a soul,” said Mireia, a 23-year-old blue-eyed model from Barcelona with a degree in pharmacology who plans to pursue a master’s degree in nutrition.

“I think it’s important that they don’t want to see only our bodies, they are looking for moral things,” she added.

About Mireia

• With almost 31,000 instagram followers and more than 900 photographs, Mireia has already become an online hit. She kept her fans entertained throughout the competition by posting plenty of photographs from China.
• Mireia speaks four languages: Catalan, English, French and Spanish.
• Born blonde, Mireia regularly changes her hair colour. Earlier in 2015 she was rocking the brunette look.
• Mireia is 5’10” (1.77m) tall.

Controversy at the event

Controversially missing from the event was Miss Canada, Chinese-born Anastasia Lin, who had been prevented from boarding her connecting flight to Sanya from Hong Kong last month after China refused her a visa. Lin is an outspoken critic of Chinese religious policy and a follower of the Falun Gong meditation practice, which was outlawed by China in 1999. She said that after she won the Canadian title, Chinese security agents visited her father, who still lives in China, in an apparent attempt to intimidate her into silence. Neither Beijing nor the London-based Miss World Organization has commented on the controversy.

It was the second consecutive year that outside events intruded on the competition. Last year’s contest in London was marred by the murder the month before of Miss Honduras and her sister in that country.

The first Miss World contest was held 64 years ago in Britain.

Elle Draper

Elle, along with Alan, is the owner of Spain Buddy and the busy web design business – Spain Web Design by Gandy-Draper.
Born a “Norverner”, she then spent most of her life “Dann Saff” before moving to Spain in 2006. Elle’s loves are Alan, the internet, dogs, good food, and dry white wine – although not necessarily in that order.