Miss Puerto Rico wins Miss Universe
( 2001-05-12 14:39 ) (7 )

Miss Puerto Rico, Denise Quinones, was crowned Miss Universe 2001 at a glitzy pageant in her home country on Friday night, sweeping away contestants from 76 other countries with her dazzling smile and delighting a wildly cheering crowd.

Second-placed was Miss Greece, Evelina Papantoniou, while Miss USA, Kandace Krueger, was third.

The winners were announced after a two-hour extravaganza near the sultry Puerto Rico capital of San Juan.

The flag-waving crowd, who had cheered her every time she appeared on the stage, went wild as Quinones, a 20-year-old who has studied singing and dancing, was announced winner of the 50th Miss Universe title and crowned by last year's winner, Lara Dutta of India.

Sirens and horns outside the arena erupted into a cacophony as Puerto Ricans celebrated their fourth Miss Universe title.

The Caribbean island of 3.8 million people, a US territory, has eagerly embraced its chance to host the contest and Quinones was an crowd favorite from the start. Now the island was set to party.

Although all 77 contestants were on show at the start of Friday's two-hour extravaganza, 67 of the contestants were eliminated earlier in the week after a swimsuit and evening attire parade on Sunday and personality interviews during the week.

The lucky 10 remaining contestants were announced as the evening got underway -- the contestants from Spain, Venezuela, Nigeria, Israel, Greece, India, Russia, the United States, France and Puerto Rico

After the swimsuit and evening gown parades -- which according to unofficial sources were won by Quinones with Miss Greece in second place -- those final 10 contestants were pared down again to five women: Miss India, Celina Jaitly, Miss Venezuela, Eva Ekvall, and Quinones, Papantoniou and Krueger.

POISE AND BEAUTY

Then, as the suspense mounted, those five women were subjected to questions from the panel of eight judges. They had just 35 seconds to compose their nerves and answer in as winning a way as possible.

Asked what the most important thing in life was, Quinones was quick to respond: "to be the best I can be. ... To give the best of myself to others."

And asked about misconceptions of beauty, the Puerto Rican said "you have to go deep into the soul of a person" to find real beauty.

After that question session, all five women were asked the same clincher question, what one thing would they change about their past.

Quinones thought back on her short life.

"I really enjoyed all my life. The not so good moments have helped me grow, I have no regrets," she said, as the crowd warmly applauded her.

The competition, launched in Long Beach, California, in 1952 by a swimsuit company, is run by the Miss Universe Organization, jointly owned by property tycoon Donald Trump and CBS Television. Organizers said they expected it to be seen in some 130 countries.

Puerto Rico's sweetheart, with a mane of brown hair and a swinging walk, was a crowd pleaser not only for her compatriots.

"Miss Puerto Rico has everything," said a Colombian in the audience, cosmetics manufacturer Maria de Chavez, who organizes the Miss Colombia contest, adding contestants had to have beauty, intelligence and a certain flair.

Opening Friday's show to huge applause was Ricky Martin, the Puerto Rican who has been one of the stars in the world-wide Latin music boom in recent years.

Another home-grown talent with world-wide appeal, singer Marc Antony, was one of the eight judges, along with his wife Dayanara Torres, who was Miss Universe in 1993.

"We're beautiful, we're beautiful," chanted two journalists for Puerto Rican daily El Nuevo Dia as the horns sounded in the street more than half an hour after Quinones clasped the crown onto her head.