Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Gina Ann Casandra Swainson, born 1958 in Bermuda, was the first runner up in the Miss Universe contest of Miss Universe 1979. That same year she was crowned Miss World 1979. She is the only woman to win a major beauty title for Bermuda and is the joint highest placed woman and joint most successful at both pageants. Like Swainson, Rosemarie Frankland was runner up at Miss Universe in 1961 and triumphed at Miss World later that year. Helen Morgan, who five years earlier than Swainson, was first runner up at the Miss Universe 1974 pageant and won Miss World the same year. However Morgan was dethroned as Miss World making Swainson and Frankland the most successful women at both pageants
The runners-up were:
1st runner-up: Carolyn Ann Seaward (United Kingdom)
2nd runner-up: Debbie Rachelle Campbell (Jamaica)
3rd runner-up: Jodie Anne Day (Australia)
4th runner-up: Barbara Meyer (Switzerland)
Finalists:
5th runner-up: Lea Silvia Dall'acqua (Brazil)
6th runner-up: Karin Zorn (Austria)
The delegates who made in the top fifteen are:
Andrea Hontschik (Germany), Shirley Chew (Malaysia), Roselina Rosas Torres (Mexico), Lorelay de la Ossa (Panama), Maria Dolores (Lola) Forner Toro (Spain), Marlene Coggins (Trinidad & Tobago), Carter Wilson (United States) and Laura Rodriguez Delgado (Uruguay).
Special awards
Personality: Anne-Marie Kay Franke (Guam)
Photogenic: Karin Zorn (Austria)
Withdrawals and Nations not competing
Venezuela, Tatiana Capote was disqualified in Miss World 1979 when one of her breasts slipped from the side during the dress rehearsal.
Other notes
Bermuda and United Kingdom placed as 1st and 2nd runner-ups in Miss Universe 1979 which was held in Perth, Western Australia.
Germany, Andrea Hontschik made into the semi-finals in both Miss Universe and Miss World at the same year. Austria, Karin Zorn, who failed to put her through the semi-finals in Miss Universe 1979 in Perth four months before, made into the semi-finals in Miss World and then placed as finalist.
