At age of 15, Nakhirunkanok attempted to win the Miss California Teen USA pageant where she placed as first runner-up. The pageant was won by Shawn Gardner who was a semi-finalist at the 1983 Miss Teen USA pageant.
In 1984, she joined the first Thai beauty pageant called "Tida Dome" held by the alumni of Thammasat University (Thailand). At that pageant she placed as third runner-up. She tried to compete again in the following year and placed as first runner-up.
She participated in the 1988 Miss Thailand pageant held in Bangkok where she won and had the right to represent Thailand at the Miss Universe pageant.
At age of 20, Porntip Nakhirunkanok was crowned as the Miss Universe 1988 by outgoing titleholder Cecilia Bolocco on May 24, 1988 in Taipei, Taiwan. She entered the semi-finals in fourth place, right behind USA, Dominican Republic, and Korea. She impressed the judges so much during the interview portion that she swept the competition, becoming the clear winner for the evening. She received the interview score of 9.730, swimsuit score of 9.684 and 9.752 for evening gown respectively.
The 1988 pageant is notable for the fact that four of the top 5 finalists all hailed from the Far East, with Porntip as the winner, Korea (Yunchung Chong) in second, Mexico (Amanda Olivares) in third, Japan (Mizuho Sakaguchi) in fourth, and Hong Kong (Pauline Yeung Bo Ling) in fifth. The rest of the top 10 were Patricia Jimenez from the Dominican Republic, Yajaira Vera-Roldán of Venezuela, Courtney Gibbs of USA, Diana Patricia Arévalo of Colombia, and Bente Brunland of Norway.
Gretchen Polhemus
Miss USA 1989, the 38th Miss USA pageant, was televised live from the Mobile Civic Center Theatre in Mobile, Alabama on February 28, 1989. At the conclusion of the final competition, Gretchen Polhemus of Texas was crowned by outgoing titleholder Courtney Gibbs. She was the fifth consecutive Miss Texas USA to win the pageant.
The pageant was hosted by Dick Clark, with color commentary by Angie Dickinson. This pageant was held in Alabama for the only time.
After winning the title Miss Texas USA, Gretchen Polhemus (born May 12, 1965) was crowned the 38th Miss USA in 1989.
She was the 5th and last out of five consecutive Texas representatives to win the title (1985-1989).
She was later the 2nd runner-up at the Miss Universe 1989 pageant.
Since then, Polhemus has worked as a professional model, a sports correspondent for ESPN and most recently she has worked for a CBS affiliate as a news correspondent.
Excerpts cortesy Wikepedia
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