Miss American Samoa Tofoipupu Unutoa and the Miss American Samoa team returned from the Miss Pacific Islands Pageant in Fiji on Sunday. They were greeted at the airport by the Director of the American Samoa Visitors Bureau Taimalelagi Minnie Tuia, family and friends.
Miss Fiji Ailava Samuel was the judges’ choice to win this year’s pageant. Miss Papua New Guinea was first runner up, Miss Samoa was second runner up, Miss Tonga was the 3rd runner up and Miss Cook Islands was the 4th runner up.
Miss Fiji won Best Interview, Miss Tonga won the sarong category, Miss Cook Islands won Best Talent and Miss Papua New Guinea won Best Traditional Wear. Miss Kiribati won Miss Personality, Miss Cook Islands won Miss Photogenic, the Tourism Award was won by Miss Tonga and Miss Papua New Guinea won Miss Internet.
The pageant was not without controversy. As reported by ABC Pacific, the Miss PNG team was dissatisfied with the results and asked for a viewing of the judges score sheets. There were also complaints about the make up of the judging panel. ABC Pacific reporter Lice Movono said all except one of the main judges were based in Fiji although they were from different Pacific islands. The only judge that was from outside Fiji was Ms Rosalind Polu, the local manager for Hawaiian Airlines.
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A video that was circulated on FaceBook after the pageant showed Miss American Samoa and Miss Samoa dancing away holding their flags, undeterred by the results. Tofoi said in a message from Fiji thanked everyone for their support and hoped she represented the territory well. There has been an outpouring of messages of appreciation to her for her consistent performance in all the pageant events and for being a great ambassador for American Samoa. Malo lava Tofoi!
Photos: Miss Pacific Islands FB
