Miss World 1999
- an amalgam
of news reports -
A
20-year-old from northern India was chosen Miss World 1999 over 93 other
contestants.
Yukta Mookhey, a slender brunette who wore a pale blue evening gown, won
$100,000 and a year of travel around the world.
Miss Venezuela, 24-year-old Martina Thorogood, was runner-up, and Miss South
Africa, Sonia Raciti, 21, won third place.
While a panel of judges at London’s Olympia Theater watched nearly 100 young
women parade in evening gowns and answer such questions as “What is your
favorite food?” about 20 women’s rights activists gathered outside holding
placards that read, “Stop this sexist cattle market.”
In
an apparent effort to update a fundamentally old-fashioned competition, the
organizers avoided a swimsuit competition and instead showed viewers a film
of the contestants at play on a beach in Malta.
During the judging, Miss Mookhey said she would like to have been born
Hollywood film star Audrey Hepburn, who she admired for her “inner beauty,
compassion and great aura.”
She told the judges that Thai food was her favorite and that she would love
to go to Paris.
She was crowned by her predecessor, Linor Abargil, 20, from Israel.
Miss Mookhey graduated from college with a degree in zoology and has worked
in computer software programming. Her family is from northern India but she
was educated at a British school in the Persian Gulf region. She has
studied classical music in India for three years.
The seven judges included boxer Lennox Lewis, Formula 1 motor racing driver
Eddie Irvine and Dean Cain, who plays Superman on television.
