Miss Universe Canada was sent on a 24-hour emotional roller coaster that began Saturday when she won the pageant and finished when her crown was yanked.
Competition organizers apologized to Denise Garrido of Ontario, but said a computing error mistakenly gave her the winning number of points. The actual winner was Riza Santos from Calgary.
“During the validation of the computerized scoring results, which occurs the following day, a typo was discovered in the top five entries, which significantly impacted the final results of the competition,” pageant director Denis Davila said, according to the Toronto Sun.
Miss Garrido was demoted to fourth place, just a day after she thought she won.
“We would like to offer our sincere apology to Denise Garrido for this human error discovered while validating the results. Miss Garrido’s example and grace represents all we look for at Miss Universe Canada,” Mr. Davila said.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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