Thailand has been pipped at the post and fallen short of winning this year’s Miss World event.
The title went to 26 year old Vanessa Ponce de Leon from Mexico with Miss Thailand, Nicolene Pichapa Limsnukan, being named ‘runner up’.
Miss Mexico was crowned the 68th Miss World at the event in the Chinese coastal resort of Sanya.
The event rolled out US disco queens, Sister Sledge, performing their 1979 disco anthem We Are Family.
Miss Thailand, content with runner-up status, watches on as last year’s Miss World, Miss India, crowns the new 2018 Miss World, Vanessa Ponce de Leon from Mexico
Runner-up, Nicolene, won the Miss Thailand World pageant in Bangkok on September 15, making her the representative for the Miss World event.
Nicolene was born in California and raised by a single mum, the 20 year old is a business student at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce and also finished in the Top 10 of the Miss Thailand Universe pageant last June.
She has been a regular at beauty pageants since she was six. In 2014, at 15 years old, won the Miss Teen Asia USA title.
Thailand never has won a Miss World title.
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It is the eighth time the Miss World final has been held in Sanya, capital of the island province of Hainan, which first hosted the pageant in 2003.
At the finals three years ago controversy erupted as officials in Hong Kong stopped Miss Canada, Anastasia Lin, from boarding a plane bound for Sanya, telling her she would not receive a visa.
The 25-year old actress claimed the decision was due to her stance on China’s human rights record, including its persecution of Falun Gong, a Chinese spiritual group of which she is a practitioner.
