Danielle Ohayon
JAMAICA'S REPRESENTATIVE to the 2002 'Miss World' competition, 19-year-old Danielle Ohayon, is fast becoming one of the favourites - well, on the Internet that is.
The site Globalbeauties.com, which is a store- house of all beauty pageant-related information, has photos of her and other contestants, a message board on which she is being highly rated and also a bookies section.
On the message board, one person wrote, "From what I have seen so far, Miss Jamaica might take the crown this year once more. I love Miss Jamaica, I hope she wins. Go girl you are beautiful."
Another person wrote "I love the Caribbean girls this year. I'm thinking maybe four could reach the top 10- Puerto Rico, Antigua, Curacao and Jamaica."
Meanwhile on the site's '10 of the day', Ohayon is ranked at number four in the 'Caribbean Queens of Beauty.' She is preceded by Puerto Rico, Antigua and Aruba.
London Bookmakers, Nordic Bet, place Ohayon in sixth place, as do experts Paulo Galvao of Brazil and April King of Jamaica. Others have her at ninth and tenth places.
The favourite is Miss Norway, Kathrine Sorland.
Jamaica has produced three Miss World's, Carol Joan Crawford, 1963; Cindy Breakspeare, 1976 and Lisa Hanna 1993, as well as several other top 10 finalists.
However, while the bookies and fans have been gearing up for the competition there has been total chaos in Nigeria, where the contest was supposed to have been held.
On Friday the contestants were unable to leave their Abuja hotel as violence escalated in the African country.
"There are hundreds of security guards protecting the place. They are everywhere," said one contestant in a BBC online article.
Jamaica's entrant in this year's Miss World competition, Danielle Ohayon, and the 91 other contestants are expected to be shuttled from Nigeria to London where the finals has been shifted off to.
As a result of the escalating violence in Nigeria, the Miss World organisers decided late Friday evening to move the competition.
"Miss World Organisation and Silver Bird Productions Limited, organisers of the 2002 Miss World pageant, have decided to move the grand finale to London, England," the organisers said in a statement.
"This decision was taken after careful consideration of all the issues involved and in the overall interests of Nigeria and the contestants participating in this year's edition," it added.
Meanwhile, because of the pressure they had been suffering from their own country's press and human rights organisations, Misses England, Belgium and Canada withdrew from the competition early last Friday.
Riots erupted in the city of Kaduna on Wednesday after an independent newspaper based in Lagos, This Day carried an article which the country's Muslims deemed as inflammatory. The article suggested that the Prophet Mohammad would probably have married one of the Miss World beauty queens.
As a result rampaging Muslim youths burned the Kaduna offices of the newspaper and by Friday 105 people were left dead with the violence spreading to Abuja.
The Sunday Gleaner attempted to get in contact with Miss Ohayon on Friday but our efforts proved futile as no calls were being put through to the hotel.
However Miss Jamaica World Franchise holder Mickey Haughton-James told The Sunday Gleaner that her family members had been in contact with her. "I spoke with her mother yesterday (Thursday) and she said that she was upbeat and happy. She (Ohayon) seemed to be completely unaware about what was going on in the other city."
Regarding the situation in Nigeria, Haughton-James said that they were keeping close tabs on the situation. "We are definitely watching it very closely and are waiting to see what the Miss World organisation will do," he said to The Sunday Gleaner.
