LONDON -- Miss World 1986, Giselle Jeanne-Marie Laronde, a 23-year-old secretary from Trinidad and Tobago, adjusted her new crown and told a worldwide audience of her hopes to get married.
Miss Denmark, Pia Rosenberg Larsen, 19, came in second and Miss Austria, Chantal Schrieber, 21, won third place in the contest Thursday televised to millions of viewers worldwide from Royal Albert Hall.
Wearing a rhinestone-studded black evening dress, Laronde, a brown-haired 5-foot-5 secretary whose main interest is modeling, smiled broadly as she stepped onto the stage ahead of a field of 77 contestants.
Laronde, of Marabella, South Trinidad, reached up to reposition her crown and spoke of her boyfriend, Ricardo Merrick.
'We hope to marry eventually,' she said. 'But now that I have won, I can safely say it will be at least 12 months before we do.'
The second woman from the Caribbean to win the title, she was tipped as the 1986 favorite by the London newspaper Daily Mirror, which described her as a 'Caribbean cracker who should have everyone up for a calypso.'
The title earned her a cash prize of $42,000 and an additional Top Shop Trophy, which carries a further cash prize of $7,000 and $35,000 of contract work.
Her younger sister, Jinine, 20, who lives in London, was on hand to see her win. Laronde said she hoped to be 'meeting and helping children around the world' during her yearlong reign.
To get into the Miss World competition, the 77 contestants first must be voted the most beautiful women in their home countries. Although the competition is run as a business, it brings glory to the contestants and raises funds for children's charities around the world.
For coming in No. 2, blond Danish beauty Larsen, a store manager, won $2,800 with the Top Shop package, and Schrieber, a blond Austrian flight attendant, won $1,400 with the Top Shop Trophy for coming in third.
Laronde is the 'complete opposite' to last year's blond winner, Hofi Karlsdottir of Iceland, according to the Daily Mirror.
Minutes before the judges announced the winners of the 1986 Miss World contest, they chose a beauty queen for each continent, and Laronde was voted The Americas Queen of Beauty. Larsen won the European title.
Miss Philippines, auburn-haired Sherry Rose Byrne, an 18-year-old medical student, won the Asian title. Miss Swaziland, dark-haired Illana Faye Lapidos, also a medical student, was voted African beauty queen. Blond Miss New Zealand, Lynda Marie McManus, 20, a photographic model, took the Oceania title.
