30 MAY 2002
Oxana Fedorova, a 24-year-old lawyer from Russia, won the Miss Universe 2002 contest on Wednesday evening, beating 74 other candidates for the coveted title. It is the first time Russia has won the competition.

Green-eyed Oxana, who earlier in the evening had joined her fellow bevy of beauties in modelling swimsuits, wore a floaty white gown during the latter part of the glittering gala in Puerto Rico's Robert Clemente Coliseum.

Coming second and third respectively were Miss Panama, Justine Pasek, and Miss China, Ling Zhuo. This year was the first time China has participated in the event.

Also entertaining the 6,000-strong audience was hot Latin salsa star Marc Anthony.

Following her win Oxana, who is working on a doctoral law thesis on civil law and would like to run her own law firm some day, spoke of her joy at having scooped the title.

The St Petersburg native was chosen from five finalists after responding to a series of questions from the panel. The last one of which was, “What makes you blush?”. “When I say the wrong things,” quipped Oxana to laughter and cheers from the audience.