BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - FOLLOWING the staging of the first SKNFA Miss Sports Personality Pageant held last Saturday (June 23), controversy struck and from there a number of rumours surfaced concerning several hiccups that were said to have taken place on the night of the show.
The rumours surrounded the choice of judges, the evening wear and interview segments of the show, and meetings that were held with one of the contestants.
SKNVibes spoke with SKNFA Executive and Chairman of the pageant's organising committee, Dominic Stevens, who passionately refuted the rumours, stating that they were nothing but absurdity.
On the issue of the Committee choosing judges that would judge in favour of a specific team, Stevens said that the judges were chosen by an outside source and that the Committee had nothing to do with who was chosen to critique.
"The judges were not chosen by the SKNFA. SKNFA management preferred to take a side-bar towards the judges and this was because the members of the executive did not know anything about pageants so we brought in a pageant consultant, Vincent Fough, who advised the SKNFA on how to host and run a pageant."
It was rumoured that the first runner-up had originally won the evening wear segment but was not given the win due to the dress being too revealing.
Stevens countered that that was false, noting that the judge's decision was what was put forward.
"That is not true; nothing like that happened. Whatever decisions that the judges made, neither the SKNFA nor the organising committee would tamper with it, play with, change it or disagree with it. We believe that the judges’ decisions are final and whatever they gave, we took."
When addressing the interview hiccup, the Chairman said, "Basically the segment was supposed to consist of three questions and the person who was asking these questions only asked two, so the judges did not give anyone a score because they were made to understand that they were only to judge the third question which was not asked.
Stevens said that by the time it was realised that the ladies were only being asked two questions, they had already passed the third contestant, so the decision was made to give everyone the same score.
Stevens said, when addressing the fracas after the pageant ended, that it was simply fans in disagreement, and while the committee did not appreciate what happened, one cannot predict the way persons would behave.
"They were just passionate fans who came out to support the young lady and they felt that the decision should have gone in their favour and that is why they reacted the way they did. One cannot tell the fans how to react or how to behave whether at a football game or at a pageant.
"In everything you do, you always hear the famous words "they cheat" and so we would hope that one would not resort to that kind of behavior. This is not something that the SKNFA condones or likes to see happen."
On the issue of the meeting held with the first runner-up contestant, Stevens refuted the allegation, stating that it was ludicrous.
"That is utter ridiculousness! Neither the organising committee nor the SKNFA held any meeting with any of the contestants since the show ended. I can verify that that it did not happen and that it will not happen."
On the other hand, SKNVibes also spoke with first runner-up Anthea Morris who stated that she was in fact contacted by one of the members of the organising committee who told her that a meeting would be held on Monday (June 25) and her presence was requested.
She did, however, state that she did not attend the meeting, and was told of another meeting that would be held the following Wednesday but was not told if she should attend and she did not inquire about it.
When asked about the interview segment, Morris said that the contestants were first informed that they would be asked three questions, but was later told that they would only be questioned twice.
She explained that on the night of the show following that segment, the contestants were informed that they would each be given ten points due to circumstances.
On the flip side, Stevens said that the SKNFA and organising committee do plan to continue with the show and there is also hope of it becoming a regional event.
"The initial idea is to have an annual pageant and also of making it a regional one which the SKNFA would host here in St. Kitts. This is something we would like to build on."
He said that a lot of work, effort and money was put into the pageant to ensure it would be of a high standard noting "we wanted to ensure that we put on a show that was good and we do intend to continue with the pageant next year and we do intend to make it regional".
The Chairman explained that the idea of the show derived from them wanting to bring something different to the table.
"We wanted to do something that was different, extraordinary, and show people that football is not just about being on the field. You can combine beauty, talent, and pageantry with football and bring something different to our football loving fans."
Stevens said that despite the hullabaloo, the SKNFA Sports Personality Pageant will be an annual event and the first was "no doubt a success".
