Strong gusts of wind at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah on Wednes­day night blew two vet­er­an mas­quer­aders, with high hopes of suc­cess, out of con­tention in this year’s King of Car­ni­val com­pe­ti­tion. 

The typ­i­cal windy con­di­tions at the venue, which af­fect­ed sev­er­al mas­quer­aders dur­ing the pre­lim­i­nary round of the com­pe­ti­tion, last week, did not have a calami­tous ef­fect on the dozens of mas­quer­aders on show, un­til Ravi Lakhan and Ted Eu­stace were set to take the stage with their gar­gan­tu­an cos­tumes at the tail-end of the Car­ni­val King semi­fi­nal com­pe­ti­tion. 

Lakhan, of San­gre Grande, who topped the pre­lim­i­nary round and is a reg­u­lar fea­ture in the fi­nals of the an­nu­al com­pe­ti­tion, was halfway through his pre­sen­ta­tion, Zeus-King Of The Gods, when his cos­tume fell on its side due to the wind as he turned to show the judges de­signs at the back. 

Lakhan, who ap­peared to have suf­fered a head in­jury in the fall, man­aged to free him­self from the cos­tume which fea­tured a gi­ant ef­fi­gy of the Greek God rid­ing a myth­i­cal winged steed. 

Af­ter they were able to re­store the cos­tume, Lakhan earned the ad­mi­ra­tion and ap­plause of the mod­est au­di­ence as he re­turned to the cos­tume and at­tempt­ed to com­plete his per­for­mance. 

Fol­low­ing Lakhan, Eu­stace, who was vy­ing for his fifth ti­tle, was un­der­stand­ably cau­tious and he de­layed the en­trance of his cos­tume, which was the largest in the com­pe­ti­tion at 40 feet wide by 40 feet high. 

When he even­tu­al­ly com­menced his per­for­mance, Eu­stace spent less than a minute on stage as he dragged his cos­tume from one side of the stage to the oth­er with­out mod­el­ling it for the judges. 

He ex­plained his cur­tailed pre­sen­ta­tion as he spoke to Guardian Me­dia im­me­di­ate­ly af­ter cross­ing the stage. 

“The wind was every­body’s neme­sis. I tried my best to por­tray it how I want­ed it but I was fight­ing the wind all the time,” Eu­stace said. 

“If I had on­ly turned that mas would have top­pled over like any­thing else,” he added. 

At the time, Eu­stace ex­pressed hope that he and Lakhan would still have a place among the 10 fi­nal­ists.

 “I think every­one should get in be­cause you should not dis­qual­i­fy any­body for an act of God,” he said. 

His hopes were even­tu­al­ly dashed as nei­ther was se­lect­ed to par­tic­i­pate in the fi­nal at the Di­manche Gras show on Sun­day.  

The strong winds al­so af­fect­ed the nu­mer­ous moko jumbie mas­quer­aders in the Car­ni­val King and Queen com­pe­ti­tion, who were forced to di­al back their dar­ing dance per­for­mance to pro­tect them­selves. 

De­spite the is­sues, three such Car­ni­val Kings made it to the fi­nals—Glen De Souza, Adri­an Young, and Rus­sell Grant. 

The Car­ni­val Queens, fea­tur­ing the tra­di­tion­al Car­ni­val char­ac­ter, did not fare as well as two-time win­ner Shynel Brizan, who earned her last crown in 2022, miss­ing out on the fi­nals. 

Reign­ing Car­ni­val King Ray­mond Mark ap­peared set to earn a sec­ond ti­tle as he topped the semi­fi­nal round with his pre­sen­ta­tion Spir­it Dance-Cel­e­brat­ing The An­ces­tors.

Reign­ing Car­ni­val Queen Priya Na­gas­sar bare­ly made it in­to the fi­nals to de­fend her crown as she placed tenth. 

Un­like oth­er Car­ni­val com­pe­ti­tions, the de­fend­ing Car­ni­val King and Queen are not guar­an­teed a place in the fi­nal and have to com­pete to de­fend their crown. 

Mas­quer­ad­er Dana Ram­per­sad, who topped the pre­lim­i­nary round with her pre­sen­ta­tion Flight of the Monarch But­ter­fly, main­tained her po­si­tion at the end of the semi­fi­nals. 

Joseph Lewis, who won the com­pe­ti­tion along­side Brizan in 2019 and 2022, placed fourth with his pre­sen­ta­tion Xhirko­mak -Lord of the Un­der­world.  

Mar­lon Ram­per­sad and his wife Lau­ra, whose son An­to­nio was crowned Ju­nior King of Car­ni­val on Wednes­day night, made it in­to the fi­nal as they placed sev­enth and fifth, re­spec­tive­ly. 

RE­SULTS

Se­nior Car­ni­val Queen Fi­nal­ists 

1. Dana Ram­per­sad - Flight Of The Monarch But­ter­fly

2. Sav­it­ri Hol­lassie - Aza­lea-The Ser­pent Sor­cer­ess

3. Rox­anne Oma­lo - Queen Taran­tu­la 

4. Tekeyah Fletch­er-Mar­shall - The Dream Catch­er

5. Lau­ra Ram­per­sad - Princes Takara

6. Maria Davis - Mys­ti­cal War­rior Queen: Cel­e­brat­ing The Strength Of A Black Woman

7. Eliz­a­beth Lu­cas - Dance An­nie Dance, A Trib­ute to Tourist An­nie 

8. Pe­o­la Marchan - The African Monarch But­ter­fly

9. Tur­ona Ramb­harose-Mo­ra - Wa­ter Is Life 

10. Priya Na­gas­sar - Moth­er Na­ture-Beau­ty Of Na­ture

Se­nior Car­ni­val King Fi­nal­ists

1. Ray­mond Mark - Spir­it Dance-’Cel­e­brat­ing The An­ces­tors’

2. Fareid Car­val­ho - Ak­ta­pas 

3. Adri­an Young - Mas­quer­ade Of Tra­di­tion

4. Joseph Lewis - Xhirko­mak-Lord Of The Un­der­world 

5. Rus­sell Grant - Bo­son Jumbie

6. Arif Gran­tum - Guardian Of The Mys­ti­cal Realm 

7. Mar­lon Ram­per­sad - D Spir­it Of Pan­thera Leo

8. Er­ron Sookdeo - Wind-The Raw Pow­er Of Na­ture

9. Glen De Souza - Grand Voleur

10. Ke­ston Ben­thum - Zan­shin The Age Of Aware­ness-The Samu­rai’s Quest