DEREK ACHONG

Se­nior Re­porter

A late-night down­pour at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah brought this year’s Na­tion­al Car­ni­val King semi­fi­nal to an abrupt end.

The T&T Car­ni­val Bands As­so­ci­a­tion stopped the com­pe­ti­tion as rain be­gan when on­ly five of the 20 com­peti­tors had crossed the stage.

The As­so­ci­a­tion said it took the de­ci­sion to en­sure the safe­ty of the mas­quer­aders and to pro­tect the struc­tur­al in­tegri­ty of their al­ready rain-drenched cos­tumes.

The de­ci­sion means the 20 se­mi-fi­nal­ists will now com­pete in the fi­nals at the Di­manche Gras show on Sun­day.

They will com­pete along­side 10 Car­ni­val Queens, who judges se­lect­ed from a pool of 20 ear­li­er last night.

Or­gan­is­ers com­plet­ed the Ju­nior Car­ni­val King and Queen com­pe­ti­tion be­fore end­ing the event and an­nounced the win­ners.

Reign­ing Ju­nior Car­ni­val King An­to­nio Ram­per­sad re­tained his crown, se­cur­ing a hat-trick of wins af­ter claim­ing the ti­tle for the past two years.

He tied with first-time win­ner Jarel Pe­ters.