Miss World Guyana 2026 Kelcia Nelson may not have won the coveted crown at the 2026 Miss World finale in Vietnam on September 5, but the 27-year-old Linden beauty is leaving the competition proud of the way she represented her country and the connections she made.

In a post on social media following the finale, Nelson reflected on the four weeks she spent getting to know contestants from around the world and said she found it difficult to feel disappointed despite not taking home the crown.

“It’s hard to be disappointed when you’ve had the opportunity to truly get to know these women over the course of four weeks,” Nelson said.

“We arrived from different parts of the world, but we all came with a version of the same dream. So when you see one of us achieve it, there is genuine happiness for her.”

Nelson said the contestants understood the work, sacrifices and hope behind reaching the Miss World stage because they had experienced the journey themselves.

“You know the work, the sacrifices and the hope behind that moment because, in some way, you carried them too,” she said.

Nelson also expressed pride in the newly crowned Miss World, Dominican Republic’s Joheirry Mola, as well as the newly named Continental Queens.

She congratulated Georgia-Lee Gill of Trinidad and Tobago, who was named Miss World Caribbean, along with the representatives selected for the other regions.

The Continental Queens included Brazil for the Americas, South Africa for Africa, Spain for Europe, Malaysia for Asia and the Cook Islands for Oceania.

“I am incredibly proud of our new Miss World and each of our Continental Queens, and I cannot wait to see what they do with the year ahead,” Nelson said.

“Congratulations, queens. May this next chapter be everything you dreamed of and more,” she added.