Miss India, 24, Crowned New Miss World

A 24-year-old celebrity manager from India was crowned Miss World on Saturday, defeating 85 competitors at the pageant on the Seychelles Islands.

Diana Hayden, a 5-foot-8-inch brunet, told reporters that the victory “means the world to me.”

After three years in Sun City, South Africa, the pageant moved last year to Bangalore, India. But protesters who claimed that the competition was an insult to Indian women forced organizers to move the swimsuit competition to the Seychelles, which obtained the license to stage the entire event this year.

Miss New Zealand, 18-year-old model Laura Lee Martinovich, was second and Miss South Africa, law and psychology student Jessica Moguang, 24, finished third.

Contestants from 86 countries and territories were judged by a nine-member panel that included former Seychelles President James Mancham and American actor Louis Gosset Jr.

Hayden, holder of the Miss India title, is required to make 50 appearances to promote the Seychelles, a grouping of islands with 75,000 people in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

Hayden, who runs her own celebrity management company in Bombay and hopes to launch a record label, said she would use part of her $95,000 prize money to help her family.