Miss World 1979

Gina Ann Cassandra Swainson
BERMUDA

Commonwealth countries swept the top four places in this year's pageant. A remarkable fact was that the winner, Bermuda's Gina Swainson and her first runner-up, England's Carolyn Seaward, had placed 2nd and 3rd in the Miss Universe pageant four months earlier. Swainson was studying wine making at the University of Wisconsin because her family owned a wine business in Bermuda. Austria's Karin Zorn, who was also in the Universe pageant, won the Miss Photogenic award as well as placing seventh - she would become Miss Europe in 1980. Venezuela's Tatiana Capote Abel was disqualified after one of her breasts popped out of her scanty one-piece swim suit, sending photographers scrambling for the best shot.