Miss Jamaica World 2007 Yendi Phillipps poses during her Miss World 'photo shoot' with international photographer Marco DiFlorio recently. - Contributed

The competition for the next Miss World is on in earnest in China.

The first of five-fast track events, the Miss World Beach Beauty 2007 title was decided on Friday, last week.

The winner of that competition, Dominica's Aida de la Cruz, will automatically make it to the semi-finals of the competition to be held on December 1.

Jamaica's Yendi Phillipps is already making an impact after placing second in the Beach Beauty competition.

While this does not guarantee a place in the final 10, Phillipps will have the other fast track competitions, talent, sports, beauty with a purpose, and a modelling qualifying contest, as well as her unique Jamaican personality to gain a spot in the semi-finals.

Dominica's de la Cruz, is described as a competition 'favourite' on the pageant website global beauties, as well as Miss Puerto Rico, Miss Angola and Miss United States. However, they did not place in the fast track event.

Miss China's Zi Lin Zhang was placed third while Misses Lithuania and Mexico round out the top 5.

The other 16 semi-finalists (21 in total due to a tie for 20th place) came from Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Ethiopia, Grenada, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, Ukraine and Venezuela.

Ten other candidates will be selected by Miss World's panel of judges after their preliminary interviews, in choices based on beauty, charm and intelligence.

The 15 semi-finalists will fight for the Miss World crown on December 1. The event will be telecast to over 150 countries and will be watched by some two billion people.