SPAIN’S Mireia Lalaguna Royo was named the winner of the Miss World 2015 competition in the southern Chinese island resort of Sanya.

    Sofia Nikitchuk of Russia was the runner-up and Indonesia’s Maria Harfanti took third place in the Saturday night final following a lengthy competition featuring 114 women. Each had won the right to represent their country in a series of local and regional competitions.

    The victory marked the first-ever win for a Spanish contestant.

    “I think this is a good decision, because Miss World is not looking for our body, they are looking for a soul,” said Lalaguna, a 23-year-old model from Barcelona with a degree in pharmacology who plans to pursue a master’s degree in nutrition. She placed first in the competition’s top model contest and appeared to impress the judges with her public speaking.

    “I think it’s important that they don’t want to see only our bodies, they are looking for moral things,” she said.

    This was 65th Miss World contest and the seventh held in China.

    The Miss World pageant, created in Britain by Eric Morley in 1951, is the oldest surviving major international beauty contest.

    It is one of the three most publicized beauty contests in the world, alongside the Miss Universe and Miss Earth contests.(SD-Agencies)