A ra­di­ant Shenesse Richard­son was crowned Miss Cen­tral Trinidad when the Cou­va Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee staged its pop­u­lar queen pageant at the Cou­va car park on March 5. Spon­sored by the Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, Richard­son al­so won two of the five in­di­vid­ual cat­e­gories on of­fer-Best Cos­tume and Best Evening Gown. She walked away with $6,000 and sev­er­al oth­er prizes. First run­ner-up was Anaya­ka Abra­ham (Miss Vir­go Con­sul­tants), with Shar­lene Bram­ble (Miss Pre­mier Cus­toms Bro­ker­age) plac­ing third and cop­ping the Miss In­tel­li­gence ti­tle. Shan­non Mitchell (Miss Whit­leys) was vot­ed Miss El­e­gance, while Sha­rana Ramjit (Miss KS Chin­pire Con­struc­tion) emerged as Miss Ami­ty.

A stu­dent at the School of Busi­ness and Com­put­ing Stud­ies, 18-year-old Richard­son was ec­sta­t­ic af­ter the re­sults were an­nounced. "I am thrilled to rep­re­sent the peo­ple of Cou­va. It has been a great ex­pe­ri­ence and all the girls were won­der­ful," said Richard­son, who hopes to be a pae­di­a­tri­cian in the fu­ture. Co-or­di­na­tor of the queen pageant, Mar­va Lewis, said the show was a huge suc­cess with the largest crowd ever. "The girls were well pre­pared and any one of them could have won. They are all grace­ful and charm­ing," she added. Chair­man of the Cou­va Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee, Ram­c­hand Ra­jbal, praised the spon­sors for con­tribut­ing to the "biggest and best" queen pageant in the his­to­ry of Cou­va Car­ni­val.