In a tough competition among 20 contestants, Namrata Shrestha win the title of Miss Nepal World 2020 at the grand finale held here on Saturday. Miss Nepal 2019 Anushka Shrestha crowned her successor Shrestha amid a function.

Similarly, Supriya Shrestha won the title of Miss Nepal Earth 2020 while Sandhya Sharma was crowned Miss Nepal International 2020 and Shimal Kanaujiya Supranational 2020.

Twenty-three-year-old Shrestha will represent Nepal in the Miss World 2021. A certified Kindergarten teacher and sociology student Miss Nepal World 2020 Namrata Shrestha also received the Yahama Fashino scooter. She also bagged the Miss Confident title.

Unlike previous years, when the hidden treasure Miss Nepal used to be selected in the month anywhere between March and May, this year it was delayed by more than six months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The auditions were conducted locally in major cities -- Dhanagadhi, Nepaljung, Butwal, Pokhara, Bhartpur, Birjung, Kathmandu, Dharan and Birtamod.

Out of 250 applications received in the last audition held in Kathmandu on November 1, only 21 participants -- aged from 19 to 25 -- were selected.

The selected were then kept in residential training for two weeks in Park Village Resort in Kathmandu reports The Rising Nepal.

According to the daily, owing to the pandemic, the participants were provided various grooming and capacity building workshops virtually. After opening sequence and the introduction speech round, only 14 participants made it to semi-final.

The daily reports that the semi- finalists then competed in the interview and evening gown session, after which only seven finalists remained to compete for the top prize.

Then, chief judge of the program asked common questions to each of them. Judged by their answer, the number of participants dwindled to four. This year’s Miss World has also been postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic.