Miss World 2008: The Leading Contenders

Beautiful women battle to be crowned the best in the world

On December 13th, beauty pageant fans will focus their attention on Johannesburg, where some of the world’s finest ladies will fight to become the fairest of them all. Here are the leading contenders, according to Paddy Power, along with the British contenders, all of whom are outsiders:

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Miss Ukraine 6/1
Irina Zhuravskaya
18, 176cm
One may think that this chestnut-haired beauty would have enough on her plate as a model, TV weather girl and student, but the eighteen year old is hot favourite to take the Miss World throne too. Unfortunately, she lost the home advantage that helped 2007’s Chinese winner Zhang Zilin when the event was moved to South Africa for security reasons.

Miss Ecuador 10/1
Marjorie Cevallos
22, 183cm
With good looks, the ambition to be a diligent journalist and a shitzu named after a Chinese dictator, Marjorie Cevallos has all the qualities of a Miss World. However, South Americans have only claimed the prize nine times in the competition’s fifty-seven year history, and an Ecuadorian has never won. That said, five of the last ten winners have hailed from a country that had never previously boasted a winner.

Miss Spain 10/1
Patricia Rodríguez
18, 179 cm
After the 2008 success of Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon and the Spanish football team at Euro 2008, the entire hopes of the Spanish nation are now pinned on Miss Rodriguez.  Her ambition to combine modeling with a business career in fashion may be aided by her near-perfect vertical measurements - Miss World form aficionados will know already that the average height of the winner over the past four years is 178.5 cm. At 179cm, Patrica Rodriguez is in the sweet spot.