Alberta: For a dazzling 24 hours, beauty pageant contestant Denise Garrido felt like a queen - she had been crowned Miss Universe Canada. But just a day after receiving her crown the winner was abruptly told that her reign was over - because competition organisers had made a huge mistake in their counts.
A mathematical error meant Ms Garrido was named the winner, when she was actually the third runner up.
The crown really belonged to Riza Santos, from Calgary, Alberta. Ms Garrido, a biomedical sciences graduate who has a black belt in TaeKwon-Do and a grade 8 in piano, was left devastated after officials realised the terrible mix-up.
Pageant director Denis Davila said: 'During the validation of the computerized scoring results (which occurs the following day), a typo was discovered in the top five entries, which significantly impacted the final results of the competition,' the Toronto Sun reported.
'This is the first instance of this type of error in the 11 years that Beauties of Canada (BOC) has produced the Miss Universe Canada pageant.
'This is an unfortunate circumstance where a human error was made, and in such a situation, as difficult as it is, it is only right to correct the error.'
Mr Davila apologised to Ms Garrido, from Bradford, who dreams of a career in the medical or science field focusing on cancer.Now the title has been transferred to the real winner, Ms Santos, the Toronto Sun reported.
Ms Santos had already flown back to Alberta when the mistake was realised - but has been reunited with her crown.
The 26-year-old true winner studied engineering and previously served in the armed forces when she was a teenager, enrolled in the Canadian Forces Army Reserve with 15 Field Ambulance.
She said on the Beauties of Canada website in the run up to the competition: 'Becoming the next Miss Universe Canada means much more than merely winning a crown.
'It would give me the opportunity to serve my country and empower women to achieve their dreams. Not everyone aspires to be a beauty queen, but everyone deserves to achieve their dream.
'As a woman who believes in a beautiful mind and spirit, I hope to encourage more young women to become the movers and shakers in any field of their choosing.'
But despite the profuse apology, the humiliating error could still be seen on the Beauties of Canada website, with correct winner Riza Santos announced at the top of the page, but the proclamation that Denise Garrido was Miss Universe Canada further down.
The mortifying mistake comes after a controversial row last year - when a transgender competitor was initially banned from entering the competition.
Jenna Talackova, then 23, competed with 61 contestants and was among the final 12 contestants.
The Vancouver, British Columbia, native was initially denied entry to Canada's pageant because she was not a natural-born female.
She had already reached the finals of the Miss Vancouver pageant before officials stepped in after it was claimed she lied on her application about her natural-born gender.
The only requirement stated on the Miss Universe Canada website is that to enter, women must be a Canadian citizen and between the ages of 18 and 27.
The application form made no mention of rules regarding sexual reassignment surgery.
LGBT activists claimed the organisation was being discriminatory, and more than 20,000 people signed a virtual petition on Change.org demanding that she be re-instated.Donald Trump, who runs the Miss Universe Organization, subsequently overruled that decision.
