Derek Achong

Cel­e­brat­ed mas de­sign­er Bri­an Mac Far­lane's cre­ations dom­i­nat­ed the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Kings and Queens pre­lim­i­nary com­pe­ti­tion on Thurs­day night at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain. In the King cat­e­go­ry, Malak Yah­weh-The Pray­ing Man­tis, por­trayed by Ger­ard Weekes, cap­ti­vat­ed the mod­est au­di­ence as he crossed the stage with chore­o­graphed move­ments mim­ic­k­ing the crea­ture he was por­tray­ing. The black and white cos­tume with a huge man­tis head had eyes that seemed to glow in the dark of the Sa­van­nah stage. Mac Far­lane's Queen, Dr Charisse Bovell, had a suc­cess­ful night, af­ter her dis­mal per­for­mance last year when her cos­tume col­lapsed in the fi­nals.

Bovell por­trayed Moth­er of Hu­man­i­ty-The Weep­ing Madon­na, which was im­pres­sive with its in­tri­cate de­signs which were be­ing tweaked by Mac Far­lane's as­sis­tants up to min­utes be­fore she crossed the stage. Bovell placed first with 454 points, 20 points more than her clos­est com­peti­tor Kay Ma­son who por­trayed Amethyst Ris­ing. This year's show was a some­what scaled-down af­fair with 74 par­tic­i­pants cross­ing the stage, com­pared to more than 100 last year.

The cos­tumes this year, al­though no­tably small­er, fea­tured the artis­tic de­tails and con­struc­tion which have be­come syn­ony­mous with Car­ni­val Kings and Queens. Re­gal colours and themes were al­so no­table dur­ing the show with nu­mer­ous par­tic­i­pants us­ing pur­ple and gold in their cos­tume de­sign.

The re­sults are:

QUEENS

1. Moth­er of Hu­man­i­ty-The Weep­ing Madon­na: Charisse Bovell-454 pts

2. Amethyst Ris­ing: Kay Ma­son-434

3. Queen of the Mas­quer­ade Ball: Glo­ria Dalls­ingh-430

4. Wachi­wi-I Dream of a Bus­tle Dancer: Rose Marie Jages­sar-428

5. Princess of the Mar­di Gras: Lau­ra Ram­per­sad-427

6. Last Dance of the En­chant­ed Witch­es: Rox­anne Oma­lo-420

7. Ex­ot­ic Sun­set on the Hori­zon: Pa­tri­cia Bai­ley-416

10. D Quet­zel in Flight: Pamela Gor­don-412

11. Ship­wreck: Jan­ice Richards-408

12. God­dess of the Arc­tic: Ladon­na Rouse-406

13. Out of the Ash We Shall Rise: Natasha Mur­ray-403

14. Heat Wave-Last of the Phe­nom­e­nal Hav­oc: La­Toya De Leon- 397

15. The Lim­bo Dancer: Cher­ry-Ann Valere-390

16. Har­mo­ny: Lanie Lexa­ma-390

17. Spec­i­men 2K-12A: Char­maine Enile-390

18. D'Woman and D'But­ter­flies: Shari Derek-389

19. Dress for a Na­tion­al Ban­quet: Ruth Mendez-381

20. Nat­ur­al Won­der of La Brea: Tra­cell Fred­er­ick-377

KINGS

1. Malak Yah­weh-The Pray­ing Man­tis: Ger­ard Weekes-424

2. Ral­liez-Vous A Mon Panache Blan­ci: Roland St George-422

3. D Mid­night Mes­sen­ger: Cur­tis Eu­stace -411

4. Flight of Con­science: Wade Madray- 401

5. Pa­pa Nile : Leroy Pri­eto-399

6. Pi­ankhy, Nu­bian Con­queror of Egypt: Fer­nan­do Marchan-397

7. Al­pha: Jhawhan Thomas-387

9. D Car­ni­val Vy­bz: Mar­lon Ram­per­sad- 385

10. The Tree of Life: Shane Phillip- 384

11. Prince Siegfried-The Sto­ry of Swan Lake: Bri­an Chin-384

12. D Dev­il and He Wife Fight­ing: Clyde Bas­combe-379

13. Kwak Wa­ka Wakin-The Scared Totem: Zain­ool Mo­hammed-379

14. En­chant­ed Sea Drag­on of the Japense Ice Fes­ti­val: R May­ers- 376

15. Icarus As­cend­ing: Earl Thomp­son- 374

16. Sanko­fa Din­go­lay: Glenn Lakhan- 373

17. Di­no-Bot-S1-7: Damien Leach -370

18. In­ti-Sun God of the Har­vest: Mar­cius Ca­ballero-366

19. The Crow: Adri­an Young-365

20. Out of the Flames: E Beck­les- 358