Crowd bewildered as two crowned Miss Caribbean Talented Teen

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – FOR the first time in its 30-year existence, judges of the Annual Digicel Haynes Smith Miss Caribbean Talented Teen Pageant were stumped, as two contestants tied for first place and both had to be crowned queen. 

The historic event took place last evening (Dec. 30) at Carnival Village, where St. Kitts’ Berriscia Byron and Consuelo Dupal of St. Lucia both scored 731.5 points to lay claim to the coveted title. 

However, a decision was made for both teenagers to be crowned queens; a decision that did not go down well for most members of the seemingly bewildered packed audience who voiced their disapproval, noting that there should have been a system in place tie-breakers. 

While Miss St. Kitts was awarded Best Dress, Miss St. Lucia won the awards for Best Talent and Best Production. However, although the decision was already made for the winner of the Best Talent segment, the audience was given the opportunity of voting by text for the contestant they thought was the best, and Miss St. Kitts won 63 percent of the votes. 

The Second Runner-up position went Ackelia Cornwall of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, who amassed a total of 704.5 points; while Miss St. Thomas, USVI, Caprisha Richards, copped the Third Runner-up spot with 701.5 points. 

Miss Grenada, Deirdre Greenidge, was named Miss Photogenic and she also won the Best Interview award, while Barbados’ representative Ashlee Simpson carted off the award for Best Ambassadorial Wear. The other contestants were Miss Trinidad and Tobago, Miss Bahamas, Miss Anguilla and Miss St. Croix. 

However, despite being advertised weeks before the Pageant, the BVI and Guyana were not represented for reasons not known by this media house. Many patrons claimed that although Berrisca Byron might not have been outstanding in all of the judged segments, she was very consistent in every one. 

A notable public figure in St. Kitts, on the condition of anonymity, said, “In any competition, the judges’ decision is final, but I am appalled at the outcome of this Pageant. 

This competition is in its 30th year and the organisers should have a clause in their rules for tied positions. What should have been done, is that the two first place contestants should have been made to reappear on stage and asked a particular question and the one with the better answer be crowned queen. However, in the employment of this tie-breaker, the second contestant should be placed in an area where she cannot hear the question or the answer given by her counterpart.” 

In addition to their viewing of the 10 beautiful and intelligent contestants’ performance, patrons were treated to a breath-taking sideshow by the Classique Dancers, whose performance to a number of the late ‘King of Pop’, Michael Jackson’s songs and the imitation of some of his well-known dance moves were greatly appreciated. 

Caribbean Soca sensation Claudette Peters also appeared onstage and had the crowd moving to a few of her hit songs including ‘Go Claudette’. 

It was surely a show to be remembered as stated in a press conference by the Executive Producer and Chairman of the event, Antonia Maynard. Miss St. Kitts and Miss St. Lucia took turns to sit in the Queen’s chair and were given separate crowns. 

However, the question many people kept asking is, “Which of the two Queens will be the official representative of the Digicel Haynes Smith Miss Caribbean Talented Teen for 2010?”