Miss Universe 2008 crown for Dayana Mendoza from Venezuela

Dayana Mendoza from venezuela has clinched the Miss Universe 2008 crown. in a close run with Taliana Vargas (Colombia - First runner up), Marianne Cruz Gonzalez (Dominican Republic - Second runner up), Vera Krasova (Russia - Third runner up) and Elisa Najera (Mexico - Fourth runner up) to win the beauty pageant. Organised in Nha Trang city of Vietnam, the beauty contest was participated by beauty queens of 80 countries.

A delighted Mendoza received the crown from Miss Universe 2007, Riyo Mori of Japan. Talking with media persons, Mendoza revealed that she was once kidnapped in her homeland and her past experience taught her to remain poised under pressure.

Miss India 2008, Simran Kaur Mundi could not make into last 15 semi-finalist list. For the eighth consecutive year, Indian beauty queens have returned empty handed from one of world's largest glamorous extravaganza. Earlier Lara Dutta fetched the Miss Universe title for India in 2000. Since then no Indian beauty win the crown for India.

List of Indian Beauty Queens since 2001

• 2001 - Celina Jaitley
• 2002 - Neha Dhupia
• 2003 - Nikita Anand
• 2004 - Tanushree Dutta
• 2005 - Amrita Thapar
• 2006 - Neha Kapur
• 2007 - Puja Gupta
• 2008 - Simran Kaur

The top ten finalists were Dayana Mendoza (Venezuela), Zana Krasniqi (Kosovo), Elisa Najera (Mexico), Laura Dundovic (Australia), Marianne Cruz Gonzalez (Dominican Republic), Claudia Ferraris (Italy), Taliana Vargas (Columbia), Vera Krasova (Russia), Crystle Stewart (America) and Claudia Moro (Spain).