Tidbits and interesting anecdotes about this year's delegates and the contest.

11/17 - For the first time the United States has won the Miss World Sports title. Introduced as a fast-track event in 2003, preview winners came from Canada (2003 and 2006) and Wales (2004). Contestants have to compete in track & field events, including the long jump. Swimming was eliminated from the competition after some African and Caribbean girls started complaining that it put them in disadvantage, back in 2004.

- Miss Dominican Republic leads all betting agencies' bets around the globe by now. She is also Global Beauties' experts #1 pick for the crown (the Ace of hearts), returning after a few days after Miss Lithuania had taken the lead. Can she handle all this pressure and actually win the title??

- In second place among GB's favorites is the representative of a small Caribbean island returning to Miss World after 11 years, and participating only for the third time: Grenada. It is good to remind our visitors that one of these two previous Misses Grenada actually won the Miss World title, Jennifer hosten, back in 1970 (photo, right above).

- For the first time in a long time there is no newcomers among this year's Miss World participant nations. Some have returned after a long time, like Sierra Leone, Suriname and Grenada, but all of them have sent representatives to Miss World in the past.

- When bronze tastes like gold - Miss Georgia (photo, left) is probably the luckiest girl competing in this year's pageant. After she was named 2nd runner-up at her national pageant, it was found out that the winner was married. Then, the 1st runner-up, who was supposed to take the crown, happened to be married too! Tamar Nemsitsveridze now has a chance to become the next Miss World.

11/10 - Miss Dominican Republic won the Beach Beauty qualifying contest this Saturday night, leaving Miss China in 2nd place and Miss Jamaica in 3rd. Will it help her in becoming the next Miss World?

- When the fast-track events were created back in 2003, Ireland's Rosanna Davidson became the first ever Beach Beauty winner. Weeks later she was crowned Miss World...

- Nevertheless, in the following year, Peru's Maria Julia Mantilla failed to be called among the Beach Beauty contest's semi-finalists. Weeks later she was also crowned Miss World!

- Some of the press early favorites, such as Puerto Rico, USA and Angola, failed to make the cut in tonight's competition. They made room for "surprising" Belgium, Mongolia, Ethiopia and Ukraine;

- As a matter of fact, Miss Ukraine was one of the most applauded beauties of the night, and shall emerge as another front-runner for the Miss World title very soon;

- Tatana Kucharova, Miss World 2006, was one of the judges in the Beach Beauty contest. When she left the judging table to go to the ladies room during an interval, several contestants jumped into her asking for a photograph with the reigning Miss World (see photo). A line was formed and Tatana took as many photographs as she could, until it was time to go back and finish her duty: helping in the selection of Beach Beauty 2007.

11/9 - Miss World Historical Statistics

-Find out how each participant country in Miss World 2007 has historically performed in the biggest beauty event on the planet! See how many winners and finalists (including winners and semi-finalists) they had, how many times they participated and when it all began for each of these 108 countries; learn which were the longest streaks and droughts for each nation, their best placements, their Miss World Ranking (1997-2006) and much more! CLICK HERE.

11/6 - Did you know that...

-Misses Mexico (Carolina Moran) and Venezuela (Claudia Suarez) have been preparing for this competition for over a year? Both were crowned national queens in September 2006. However, the champion is Miss Belize (Felicita Arzu): she won her national title on July 29th, 2006!

-Miss Jamaica (Yendi Phillips) has been compared to singer/actress Beyonce Knowles.  The Chinese media has been constantly pointing out the resemblance between the two.

-This is the fourth year that the contest takes place in Sanya.  It started in 2003, and with the exception of last year's contest (held in Warsaw, Poland), all recent editions of Miss World have taken place at the Crown of Beauty theater.

- Miss England (Georgia Horsley) was told by her national organizers to gain some weight for the international contest.  This situation made headlines in the British tabloids, as miss Horsley commented that she did not think she was really thin, and organizers wanted a healthier looking figure for their titleholders.

-The last contestant to be crowned in her country was Miss China PR (Zi Lin Zhang). The 1.82 m beauty was crowned on October 28th.

-Superwoman: Miss Malaysia, Deborah Henry, seems to be a perfect example of what a Miss World titleholder should be: she is a fashion model with a degree in Economics and Political Sciences from the University of Brisbane. She was born in Dublin and grew up in Kuala Lumpur, her mother is Irish and her father is Indian, with roots in Australia. As a sportswoman, playing volleyball and basketball, Miss Malaysia gained a gold medal in the Kuala Lumpur International schools athletic meeting and received a “Sportswoman of the Year” trophy at her school. She also founded a charity called “Open Doors”.

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