Miss World T&T selects 17 finalists for Nov pageant

by Ryan Bachoo Mon Sep 05 2022

The top seventeen finalists for the Miss World Trinidad and Tobago at the Brix Autograph Collection in St Ann’s on Sunday. ANISTO ALVES

RYAN BACHOO

Trinidad and Tobago is down to its final 17 ladies who are vying to represent this country at the 2023 Miss World competition.

The finalists were revealed on Sunday evening at the Brix Autograph Collection hotel ahead of the grand final, which is set to take place at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) on November 6.

Among the young ladies making the final was 18-year-old Miss Princes Town, Anjali Ramkissoon. She is the youngest of all the competitors. Speaking afterwards, Charu Lochan Dass, franchise holder and national pageant director of Miss World T&T, praised the young women who made it to the final.

A week before, over 50 ladies from across the country were screened as they bid to make the final and while the intention was to select 15 finalists, the judges had a tough challenge on their hands and allowed a further two for the final.

Lochan Dass said, “For the past week, I have had the privilege and opportunity to meet and work with these extraordinary young women. We really have a great bunch on board and it’s so amazing to see these young women so dedicated and so passionate about the pageant.”

She said the prizes on offer this year are the best they have been in the history of the local pageant.

West Bees Supermarket has sponsored $100,000 in cash prizes while the School of Accounting and Management will give a scholarship to the winner. Guardian Media is the official media partner of the event.

Lochan Dass added, “Prizes like these have never been given for our winners before and our aim is to elevate the pageant and bring back prestige into pageantry. In order to do so, we had to have the right sponsors and partners on board.”

Richard Young, who is a member of the screening panel and a Caribbean stylist and production designer, will help prepare the young women for one of the biggest moments of their lives so far.

At the event, he said, “I am looking forward to crafting one of the most enthralling shows of the beauty of T&T. We represent one of the most plural spaces in the world and I plan to use that plurality to inform what we do on November 6.

“We are going to have women of different heights, sizes and ethnicities from Scarborough to Maracas to San Fernando to Cocorite to Couva to Chaguanas to Port of Spain to Diego Martin. It was really a nationwide search.”

Carla Cupid, CEO of the Trinidad Tourism Ltd, added that the event can take T&T to the world.

She said, “We have to look abroad or even here for persons who would market the destination and who would act as ambassadors of T&T. They would also have to share our culture, our beauty and our talent and when we come upon an event like Miss World, we see it as a win-win. We see it as beneficial because we are tapping into these ladies who will share what they have experienced in T&T and share the destination.”

The 17 finalists:

Jemima Pierre (Miss Arima)

Tinesha William (Miss Arouca)

Lystia Mulzac (Miss Carenage)

Gabbi Pope (Miss Chaguanas)

Janelle Pirmal (Miss Claxton Bay)

Dania Duntin (Miss Cunupia)

Emma-Leigh Aqui (Miss Diamond Vale)

Ornella Mendoza (Miss Diego Martin)

Gabriella Jagmohan (Miss Glencoe)

Nattola Williams (Miss La Horquetta)

Felicia Ramoutar (Miss Marabella)

Aché Abrahams (Miss Maracas Valley)

Brenique Richards (Miss Morvant)

Tianna Corrie (Miss Palo Seco)

Anjali Ramkissoon (Miss Princes Town)

Savannah Sandy (Miss San Juan)

https://www.guardian.co.tt/news/miss-world-tt-selects-17-finalists-for-nov-pageant-6.2.1542041.80b51d7ebd