Every year's Miss Hong Kong Contest leaves some happy and some disappointed and hailing from San Francisco, Mandy Cho Man Lai has proven her favourite status and been crowned "A Winner with Four Awards", but Selena Lee Sze Wan did not even make the top three. After the contest, it has all been like a dream for the contestants.

The Miss Hong Kong Pageant 2003 drew to a close with its final at the Hong Kong Coliseum yesterday as 20-year old Mandy Cho Man Lai was unanimously chosen as the winner, gaining four awards including "Miss International Goodwill", "Best Swimsuit Figure" and "Diamond Skin Award". Newly crowned Miss Hong Kong Mandy felt happy and excited, describing the experience like a dream as she smiled: "I never thought I would win so many awards, I think I won because I was not as nervous after a backstage crew member told me to treat it like a game, so I felt a lot more relaxed."

This year's top three can be described as half favourites winning as Number 11 Rabee'a Yeung Lok Ting took the 1st runner up and Number 20 Priscilla Chik Doi Doi took the 3rd place position. Conversely, Number 18 Selena Lee Sze Wan was toppled as she failed to reach the top five after sweeping the "Miss Photogenic" and "Miss Talent" awards in the semi-finals. After the competition she says she doesn't feel disappointed and felt that she performed well, but maybe she just didn't strike a chord with the judges. Rabee'a Yeung's choice of winner was Selena, so seeing her good friend lose out, she felt a little disappointed for her. She feels that her own success was because she was very calm. As for Priscilla Chik, she wasn't surprised at her award, saying confidently: "I thought all along that I would come third."

One of the judges, Aaron Kwok commented that the 2nd and 3rd place contestants displayed a confident performanc and were not unexpected winners and Mandy was very calm and gracious. Dodo Cheng was asked about the failure of favourite Selena and she said that she wasn't very clear about this, but the decision of the top three was unanimous because Mandy and Rabee'a's performances were very good and the elevator used to announce the top five was no problem, just there to build the atmosphere.

The show last night was opened with a piano performance from Maksim and a curtain of water fountains as the contestants appeared in their swimsuits in an attempt to grab the ratings, especially with the sexy swimsuit designs. During the section where the contestants chose their own swimsuits, Number 7 Wang Chung Hei appeared in her bikini and captivated the audience with her assets, but some comments were raised about the "safety" of the swimsuits with possibly not enough cloth at the bottom as Eric Tsang immediately commented: "It doesn't matter if there is not enough coverage as long as the top section is 'bounce' resistant." Also Rabee'a Yeung's swimsuit was criticised for having too much cloth and Stephanie Au's was accused of resembling underwear!

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