BEIRUT: Jessica Kahawaty, a winner of several Lebanese beauty pageants, has become Miss World Australia for 2012.
The 23-year-old from Sydney was crowned at Uluru, Australia’s distinctive rock formation, over the weekend. She won the competition by playing a piano rendition of Beethoven's “Für Elise” with a severely injured hand, the Herald Sun reported.
''I had so much adrenaline and thought: ‘I'm going to do it even if it doesn't sound so good.’ I took off my cast despite the doctor's orders,” she said.
Kahawaty, winner of Miss Lebanon Emigrant 2008 and Miss Lebanon Australia 2007, competed against 24 other contestants.
“Thank you so much everyone - I'm numb and humbled!” Kahawaty, the law student, said in a post on her Facebook page.
The event raised $52,000 for Lilla, an indigenous community in Australia, the Herald Sun reported. The organizers decided to hold the pageant in Uluru to showcase Australia's indigenous heritage to the world.