Colombia's president on Sunday congratulated Colombian Laura Gonzalez, the first runner-up at the Miss Universe pageant, for her role in the event and stressed that the country was very well represented in the beauty contest.

The South African Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters, 22, was crowned the new Miss Universe, after winning the final round of the beauty contest held on Sunday in Las Vegas in the United States.

"What pride Miss Colombia Laura Gonzalez, showing in Miss Universe pageant everything that Colombians are: intelligent, passionate and committed," tweeted Juan Manuel Santos.

"Congratulations for reaching the top, our country was very well represented!," added Santos, who attached a video of the moment when the Colombian responded to a question from the jury.

The first runner-up was the Colombian Laura Gonzalez, and the second was the Jamaican Davina Bennett.

This 66th edition of the Miss Universe pageant introduced for the first time a selection by geographic areas: four from Europe, four from Asia/Pacific and four from the Americas, in addition to four other candidates chosen by the six members of the jury.

Of the 16 finalists, six were eliminated in a first round and 10 remained, among them were Venezuela, Spain, Brazil and Colombia.

The Venezuelan Keysi Sayago managed to reach the last round of five finalists, but only Laura Gonzalez qualified for the final.