HA NOI — The winner of Viet Nam's Next Top Model 2011, Hoang Thuy, has been named among the 15 best models in the world.

She won the title at the 2012 Top Model of the World contest final on Saturday in the German city of Dortmund.

At the contest, she also won the Best Catwalk Award.

Thuy, 21, who stands 1.77 metres tall, competed against contestants from 45 countries and territories worldwide.

After the contest, Thuy, a student at the Ha Noi University of Architecture, will go to Paris to take part in a 10-day training course that she won after taking the Viet Nam's Next Top Model 2011 title.

An Italian entrant won this year's Top Model of the World. The second prize was awarded to a Zimbabwean model and the third prize to a Colombian candidate.

The Top Model of the World contest, which aims to find the most talented catwalk models, was launched in 1993 in Miami, the US, by the Globana Group.-VNS