TORONTO — Organizers of last weekend’s Miss Universe Canada pageant admitted Sunday they crowned the wrong winner.
Denise Garrido of Bradford, Ont. was announced as the winner at Saturday’s pageant at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts in Toronto.
But the following day producers found a mistake in the scoring results. Calgary’s Riza Santos was supposed to have won the title.
Garrido, who should have been third runner-up, was called in to meet with pageant officials.
“During the validation of the computerized scoring results, a typo was discovered in the top 5 entries, which significantly impacted the final results of the competition,” spokesman Andrew Lopez explained in a statement. “This is the first instance of this type of error in the 11 years that Beauties of Canada has produced the Miss Universe Canada pageant.”
Lopez described the incident as “an unfortunate circumstance where a human error was made” and said “as difficult as it is, it is only right to correct the error.”
Officials praised Garrido’s “example and grace” upon learning that she was not the winner.
Siera Bearchell of Moose Jaw, SK was first runner-up and Diane Martin of Mississauga, ON was second runner-up.
Santos, 26, will represent Canada at Miss Universe 2013 in December.
Born in rural Alberta, Riza attended High school in Calgary then spent two years in the Canadian Forces Army Reserve and studied Mechanical Engineering at the Schulich School of Engineering.
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