Fair Czech wins it all

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, September 30, 2006

WARSAW, Poland – Tatana Kucharova, an 18-year-old student from the Czech Republic, won the Miss World 2006 beauty contest Saturday.

Kucharova defeated 103 other women in voting by a panel of judges and television viewers around the world during a two-hour finals ceremony in the Polish capital.

First runner-up in the 56th edition of the annual beauty pageant was Joana Valentina Boitor, a 17-year-old from Romania. Australia’s Sabrina Houssami, 20, was third.

A teary Kucharova blew kisses to the 2,500 audience members in Warsaw’s Congress Hall after she received her diamond crown from Miss World 2005, Unnur Birna Vilhjalmsdottir of Iceland.

Kucharova, a high-school student, told the judges she wants to go to college and then become a model.