Miss Bermuda reaches Miss World online top 20
With just two days left before the Miss World Pageant finishes in Bali, a last call went out for the community to throw its support behind Miss Bermuda Katherine Arnfield.Electronic votes in the pageant’s People’s Choice Award category could be enough to send Miss Bermuda through to Saturday’s finals, explained Miss Bermuda Pageant director Milika Seymour.“She’s in the top 20 now — it’s down to the last couple of days,” Ms Seymour told The Royal Gazette.Contestants are judged on a range of categories, but the People’s Choice is decided strictly by online votes.As of yesterday, Ms Arnfield stood at 16 out of the 130 contestants in the online ranking, making it crucial for the community to click in Miss Bermuda’s favour.To take part, the voting app can be downloaded for a 99-cent fee from the site www.missworld.com.You can then lodge two votes without further charges — with proceeds from further votes going to the pageant’s charitable causes.The People’s Choice winner automatically jumps to sixth place, thus joining the five other pageant finalists.Yesterday’s fashion show marked one of the pageant’s final hurdles.Miss Bermuda was “doing great — she just participated in the Top Model Fashion Show and while she didn’t make the top ten, she looked amazing and did an awesome job of it”, added Ms Seymour.The pageant director, who keeps in touch with Miss Bermuda and parents via e-mail, said the 17-year-old contender remains in top spirits.“She’s meeting new and different people and experiencing something that’s once in a lifetime,” Ms Seymour said.Miss World organisers moved the international pageant from the Indonesian capital of Jakarta to the island of Bali in the face of protests by Muslim groups.“As far as I’ve heard, everything is secure and running fine there — Katherine hasn’t mentioned anything,” said Ms Seymour.Now in the home run, Miss Bermuda has yet to take to the stage dressed in a gown created by Bermuda’s own Regina Simmons.“I hear she’s moving up and doing very well,” the designer said. “Not that I’m surprised. She’s got a wonderful personality, very genuine. I don’t think she went in with the idea she’d make it this far.”Putting together the gown, the design of which came to Ms Simmons in a dream, meant a week off work and a lot of late nights.The seamstress declared herself “thrilled” to hear Ms Arnfield was still in the running with her creation.The pageant’s conclusion will air on Saturday at 9am, on CableVision channel 55.