Marathon dream for new Miss Wales

Claire, 22, will represent Wales at Miss World in December

A 22-year-old keen runner has won the Miss Wales 2005 title.

Claire Evans, from Aberystwyth, was one of 30 in the final before a panel of judges in Cardiff on Friday for a place at the Miss World contest in China.

She has represented Wales in cross-country since the age of 14 and would like to be in the marathon at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Chair of the judges Professor Harryono Judodihardjo said: "I think we have a potential Miss World here."

The beauty parade went through a number of rounds including sportswear, clubwear and evening wear as well as an interview with the seven-strong judging panel.

I'm proud of my country and I just look forward to the year ahead of me Claire Evans, Miss Wales 2005

It was her second bid for the title. She said the win, which allowed people to vote by text for their favourite candidate, was a "dream come true".

She admitted she had been even more nervous than when she competed in last year's contest.

'Star value'

"I'm proud of my country and I just look forward to the year ahead of me."

Prof Judodihardjo, a cosmetic dermatologist, said: "It's always tough every year I find but as an academic we try to set up criteria as to how we choose our winners.

"I set up criteria so that during the interview round we look for ambassadorial potential and then doing all the other rounds we look for basically confidence and appearance and star value.

"There was a lot more people trying to get in who couldn't. It all depends on the organisers. It's become such good entertainment and everybody just has a good night out.

"We make it more of an entertainment for both the audience and the participants."

The judging panel at the Cardiff Coal Exchange included television presenter Amanda Protheroe Thomas, Beverly Neals, who was Miss Wales in 1979, and former Steps member Lisa Scott-Lee.

For the first time, the public were able to directly influence the outcome by texting the number of their chosen candidate to "people's vote" telephone number listed on the competition's website.

Beauty consultant Laura Livesey, 23, from Old Colwyn, Conwy, came second and Llanelli student Lisa Lloyd-Hughes, 17, was third. She has already been crowned Miss Llanelli.

Last year's Miss Wales winner, Amy Guy, an architecture graduate from Wrexham, was awarded the Miss UK 2004 title after being the most successful UK contestant at Miss World.