Yassin Faal was a participant at this year’s Miss Africa USA pageant. Unfortunately, she didn’t end up winning the competition.

What went wrong?

After failing to make it into the top ten, Yassin took to Facebook to express her disappointment with the pageant organizers.

She wrote: “Hello everyone, Gambia did not win the pageant because 1) Wrong traditional girl song was played for me to dance to, I couldn't relate. 2) My presentation slide to show my work was not displayed whiles I was on stage. This was a huge "sabotage" for The Gambia on the side of the organizers and DJs..”

But despite not taking home the Miss Africa USA crown, the young beauty is happy to have represented The Gambia.

Her decision to take part in the famous pageant earned plenty of praise on Facebook.

“We are proud of you and we love you regardless of the outcome. What really matters to us is that you gave it your best shot and represented us to the best of your ability. Best wishes in your future endeavors,” wrote Pa Lie in Alaska, USA.

“We are proud of you Yassin. It is very inspirational to see young individuals take Gambia to new and higher levels in so many different aspects of life. You are a winner,” wrote another Gambian, Kaddy Jammeh in England.

In an interview with What’s On-Gambia, the Miss Africa USA CEO and Founder, Lady Kate Atabong Ndi praised Yassin for an excellent representation of her country.

“The Pageant wishes to apologize to Miss Gambia, Yasin Faal for the technical fault that happened while she was on stage. Her music did not translate from MP4 to the System at the 5 Star Facility, the Strathmore.  This happened to Miss Sierra Leone as well.  Unlike Miss Sierra Leone, Yassin danced along to the music that came on, whereas the right thing to do is to stay still until your music comes on. 

“Unfortunately this is something we did not anticipate, same thing happened to her slide show. It was an unforeseen technical error.  It was not sabotage, if we did not want her to compete we would never have given her the chance, she was not the only Gambian who auditioned for the Pageant.  Once again we apologize and we do understand her anger.”

According to information reaching What’s On-Gambia, the winner of the 2014 beauty pageant is Ethiopia’s Meron Wudneh. She is based in Maryland, USA and is a graduate of Bowie State University where she studied Health Sciences.