Cherisse Moe

"Nev­er let go of your dreams... Don't give up for you can achieve great things." That's the ad­vice from new­ly-crowned Miss T&T Uni­verse, Gabrielle Wal­cott, to women hop­ing to fol­low in her foot­steps.Wal­cott beat out sev­en com­peti­tors at O2K Park, Ch­aguara­mas, on Sat­ur­day evening, to cop the cov­et­ed ti­tle.She now goes on to rep­re­sent T&T at the high­ly-an­tic­i­pat­ed Miss Uni­verse Pageant, in São Paulo, Brazil, on Sep­tem­ber 12.No stranger to in­ter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tion, Wal­cott, who was sec­ond run­ner-up at the 2008 Miss World Pageant in South Africa, said while she was hap­py about her per­for­mance, she is still "shocked" that she had walked away with the crown."I'm still in dis­be­lief...I hon­est­ly feel that I'm go­ing to wake up any minute," she said."It re­al­ly hasn't sunk in as yet."From the minute I saw Wendy (for­mer Miss Uni­verse Wendy Fitzwilliams), it's been my dream to win this com­pe­ti­tion...She crowned me last night (Sat­ur­day), so it's come full cir­cle and it's so amaz­ing."

But while the 26-year-old beau­ty man­aged to main­tain her com­po­sure on stage, she con­fessed that her nerves al­most got the bet­ter of her, as she "broke out in hives," mere hours be­fore the pageant. Wal­cott said: "My en­tire body was cov­ered in hives the night be­fore. My neck was swollen. I had to get my­self in­to a zone. I put on my ipod and lis­tened to some mu­sic and I said to my­self 'stay fo­cused.'"Stat­ing that she "grew up in church," the Pe­tit Val­ley res­i­dent said she re­lied heav­i­ly on her strong faith in God to get her through the event."I prayed the Holy Spir­it prayer about 100 times. My fa­ther is a dea­con, so I've al­ways been in­volved in the church. I've al­so found my own re­la­tion­ship with God and I know that he knows what's best. He nev­er gives you any­thing that you can't han­dle," she said:

Mean­while, Ian Lee, fran­chise hold­er and na­tion­al di­rec­tor, Miss T&T Uni­verse Pageant, said he was pleased with the qual­i­ty of Sat­ur­day's show, de­spite the not­ed ab­sence of Miss T&T Uni­verse 2010 win­ner, La Toya Woods. Lee said he con­tact­ed Woods a few days be­fore the pageant to ask that she at­tend the event. Woods, how­ev­er, nev­er re­spond­ed, he added."The in­vi­ta­tion was of­fered to her via a tele­phone con­ver­sa­tion and via e-mail," Lee said. "La Toya did not in­di­cate that she would at­tend or not...But the show must go on."He said Woods did a tremen­dous job dur­ing her reign, but stat­ed that it may have been a "guid­ing light" to have Fitzwilliam crown Wal­cott as the win­ner, as "every­thing hap­pens for a rea­son."

He said: "The night re­al­ly be­longed to Kim Sabeeney and her trib­ute. Over­all, it was a fan­tas­tic show. Gab­by's win is phe­nom­e­nal for all of us. Maybe it was God's guid­ance to have Wendy crown her. We're well poised to do some­thing good at that show."For­mer fran­chise hold­er, Pe­ter Elias, who re­signed from the post in 2008, told the T&T Guardian that Wal­cott was his "last queen" and he had "no doubt" she would do well. "My team and I have worked with Gabrielle and she was a dili­gent stu­dent," he said. "She al­ways gave 100 per cent and I feel con­fi­dent that she will give her best and that she will rep­re­sent our coun­try. I think that the ex­pe­ri­ence of the suc­cess she earned pre­vi­ous­ly will on­ly make her a more cred­i­ble rep­re­sen­ta­tive for us."