Shal­iza Has­sanali

Strong winds top­pled cos­tumes at the fi­nals of the King and Queen of Car­ni­val com­pe­ti­tion on Sun­day night, caus­ing dis­ap­point­ment, tears and led one par­tic­i­pant to seek med­ical at­ten­tion. How­ev­er, when the chaos, calami­ty and con­fu­sion came to an end, Cur­tis Eu­stace por­tray­ing Spir­it of Mandin­go-An African Leg­end–whipped his nine op­po­nents to cap­ture the 2010 King of Car­ni­val ti­tle, while Rose­marie Ku­ru-Jages­sar de­pict­ing Wa­ka-Nisha-The Scared Wa­ter Bear­er, was crowned Queen of Car­ni­val. It was her first vic­to­ry. Ku­ru-Jages­sar de­scribed her vic­to­ry as "long over­due" while Eu­stace has cre­at­ed his­to­ry as the on­ly com­peti­tor to cap­ture ten ti­tles–a feat nev­er done be­fore.

Eu­stace at­trib­uted his tri­umph to his years of ex­pe­ri­ence, stat­ing that he used the wind to his ad­van­tage just like a surfer would in wa­ter. It was a night of up­set and dis­ap­point­ment for vet­er­an mas mak­er Bri­an Mac Far­lane, who did not re­tain the King or Queen of Car­ni­val ti­tles. Un­der dark blue skies, the queens were the first to grace the stage at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah, start­ing with Pa­tri­cia Bai­ley's cos­tume, Ve­gas Show­girls on Stage, which went skat­ing down the ramp due to a strong gust of wind. But as the show picked up speed, so did the breeze, caus­ing Sev­el Nicholl's cos­tume Dame Gwo Bun­da, an over­sized dame lor­raine on stilts, a Bri­an Mac Far­lane cre­ation, to lose its bal­ance. Even Queen Sav­it­ri Ho­lassie had a hard time fight­ing off the breeze as she pa­rad­ed with her beau­ti­ful Jew­el Sun­bird cos­tume, which was a crowd favourite.

Joan Mo­hammed came out of her splen­did Queen of D' Desert cos­tume be­fore cross­ing the stage, as the wind had her go­ing in dif­fer­ent di­rec­tions. The breeze, how­ev­er, al­so left sev­er­al kings buck­ling un­der pres­sure, among them Aaron Kalicha­ran, whose cos­tume Don­hyang De­sa, col­lapsed. Kalicha­ran, who was as­sist­ed by mem­bers of his camp, rose to his feet and con­tin­ued danc­ing, but threw in the tow­el due to ex­treme pain in his right leg. Hob­bling off­stage, Kalicha­ran had to seek med­ical at­ten­tion. This mishap threw a damper on Kalicha­ran's camp, caus­ing all his mem­bers to va­cate the sa­van­nah be­fore the re­sults were an­nounced.

Fareid Car­val­ho who was al­so a heavy con­tender for the crown with his Seid Delir­i­um-D Mor­roc­con Fever cos­tume, al­so faced the wind's wrath and had to ter­mi­nate his pre­sen­ta­tion, dash­ing off stage. Lean­ing against a fence, tears stream­ing down his air­brushed face, Car­val­ho had to be com­fort­ed by mem­bers of his camp. "I am re­al­ly dis­ap­point­ed. The winds ru­ined every­thing," said Car­val­ho, un­able to con­tain his emo­tions. Car­val­ho said all evening there were strong gusts, which brought no end of wor­ry to him. "Know­ing that I am car­ry­ing my cos­tume I was up to some prob­lems. But I wasn't ex­pect­ing this much trou­ble. I have to cut my loss­es and move on."

With­in min­utes of Car­val­ho's cat­a­stro­phe, Mac Far­lane's cos­tume, Drag­on Can Dance por­trayed by Ger­ard Weekes, came crash­ing down, as the en­tire sa­van­nah fell silent. The life of the gold-coloured drag­on came to a pre­ma­ture end. Hav­ing placed first in the pre­lim­i­nar­ies and semi­fi­nal rounds of the com­pe­ti­tion, the fall left Weekes in a state of shock.

Pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer of Mac Far­lane's camp, Mau­rice Cheva­lier, said both their King and Queen cos­tumes, val­ued close to $175,000 were car­ried by the mas­quer­aders. Cheva­lier said if the com­pe­ti­tion was pushed to a lat­er time, the breeze would not have been so pow­er­ful.

Re­sults

Queens of Car­ni­val

1 Rose­marie Ku­ru Jages­sar - Wa­ka-Nisha–The Sa­cred Wa­ter Bear­er

2 Pe­o­la Marchan - Red Sails in the Sun­set

3 An­ra Bobb - Vi­sion of Fan­ta­sia

4 Kay Ma­son - Sweet Sum­intra.

5 Glo­ria Dalls­ingh - Wings of Free­dom

6 Pa­tri­cia Bai­ley - Ve­gas Show­girls on Stage

7 Sev­el Nicholls - Dame Gwo Bun­da.

8 In­ez Gould - Sor­cer­ess of the Ru­by

9 Sav­it­ri Ho­lassie - Jew­el Sun­bird

10 Joan Mo­hammed - Queen of D' dessert Sun

King of Car­ni­val

1 Cur­tis Eu­stace - Spir­it of Mandin­go–an African Leg­end.

2 Leroy Pri­eto - The Mas­quer­ad­er Eyo

3 Roland St George - Fan­tas­ma

4 Glen Dave Lakhan - Mys­tery of the Deep

5 Fareid Car­val­ho - Seid Delir­i­um-d Mor­roc­con Fever

6 Theophilus Sim­mons -Tipu Sul­tan

7 Glen Turn­bull - God of Par­adise

8 Aaron Kallicha­ran - Don­hyang De­sa

9 Ronald My­ers - D-Mu­sic Man

10 Ger­ard Weekes - Drag­on Can Dance