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Vongai Mbara Arts Correspondent
The competition at Miss World Zimbabwe is getting stiffer as two more aspiring models, Merlin Patai (19) and Tungamirai Shoko (22) made an exit at the pageant’s second elimination segment held on Monday.

The latest victims join four others that were evicted last week and the remaining 14 girls will square up on the ramp at the final to be held next week. The first two were evicted during the normal Monday elimination process while two others were shown the exit for indiscipline last weekend.

The remaining models continue to face the biggest test of their modelling careers in a quest to get the crown and represent Zimbabwe at this year’s Miss World beauty contest

Speaking in an interview, Miss Zimbabwe Trust’s administrator Lorraine Chawanda said the contestants are going through thorough exercises in a bid to find the best representative for the country.

“The goal is to find a queen who knows how to carry herself and will be able to sell the brand Zimbabwe. We are looking at presentation, etiquette, eloquence, intelligence and personality so that we have the best representing our country at the Miss World pageant,” she said.

The models are being groomed by coach Robert Munjoma whilst choreographer Tafadzwa Tandi-Chingono, popularly known as Hilary Indi is taking care of their choreography.

The pageant’s grand finale is set for September 8 at Orchids Garden in Domboshava and it will be held under the theme; “Embracing a Woman as a Symbol of Beauty”.

Although the pageant’s aim was to maintain their usual number of 16 finalists, this year has seen a reduction following last weekend’s unplanned eviction of two girls for alleged indiscipline and violation of camp rules.

“We are now left with 14 contestants and we are still deliberating on having another elimination. Originally we wanted to maintain our number of 16 finalist but two more girls were eliminated last week,” said Chawanda.