The curtain closed Wednesday night in Puoto Rico with the grand
pageant Miss Universe 2002 ending.
The raven-haired Chinese beauty Ling Zhuo took home for the first
time in China's history a third prize in the beauty contest.
Zhuo became the second runner-up after the newly crowned Miss
Universe 2002 from Russia, Oxana Fedorova, and the first runner up
from Panama, Justine Pasek.
The 19-year-old girl is a contracted model of the Shanghai Yifei
Model Agency. She was the gold prize winner of the Chinese beauty
pageant in March in Guangdong Province, and chosen as Miss China to
enter for the world beauty pageant.
Zhuo said she had cold right before the contest, but she was glad
at the result that she was the one to rewrite China's history.
Altoghether, candidates from 74 countries and regions took part in
the beauty contest.
(eastday.com May 31,
2002)