Miss Netherlands Nathalie Den Dekker has a lot to catch up despite looking fabulous in this photo taken during the Shanghai river cruise

After the spectacular opening ceremonies, we began to ask, who is leading at Miss World? Sure everyone has their own list and everybody has his or her own fave. And nationalism of course play a key role. Nothing is wrong with that of course. Nationalism makes the world of pageantry lively. But one must admit, it could be too early to tell but then last year, Miss World was very transparent in laying out the criteria on how the semifinalists were selected.

As of the moment, there are two categories by which Miss World contestants have competed - the Talent Contest and the Top Model Contest. In these two highly critical categories, 11 contestants have made it to the semis and they are:

Miss Australia Jessica Kahawaty

Miss Bahamas Daronique Young

Miss Bermuda Rochelle Minors

Miss Brazil Mariana Notrangelo

Miss China Wen Xia Yu

Miss Denmark Iris Thomsen

Miss Israel Shani Hazan

Miss Jamaica Deanna Robins

Miss Kazakhstan Evgeniya Klishina

Miss Mongolia Bayarmaa Huselbaatar

Miss Philippines Queenierich Rehman

Asian Power! Among the Asians only the host delegate and Miss Philippines are pulling way ahead of the pack

Is this some kind of a clear cut sign on who will be the semifinalists and somehow in this list is someone who could be the next Miss World? Could be. But there are at least 7 categories by which Miss World semis are best upon. Perhaps after the World Designer Award contest, we can see clearly on who leads. Amazingly though some of the delegates that has a large following like Miss Colombia Barbara Turbay, Miss India Vanya Mishra, Miss Nepal Shristi Shrestha, Miss Vietnam Vũ Thị Hoàng My as well as perceived top class delegates Miss Russia Elizaveta Golovanova, Miss France Delphine Wespiser and Miss Venezuela Gabriela Ferrari are not on the above list. Is Miss World nurturing again its unpredictability?

Who's leading? Miss Australia perhaps?

In the coming days perhaps we will know on who will emerge as the frontrunner. But as a gentle reminder, the frontrunner in the selection of semifinalists does not really end as a winner. Last year, Miss Puerto Rico Amanda Vilanova topped the preliminaries but she ended up as 2nd princess. For the moment though, the contestants who made it to the semis of two categories have a lot of reasons to celebrate.