Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Miss Uni­verse 2024 del­e­gate, Jenelle Thongs was award­ed Miss Con­ge­nial­i­ty dur­ing the pre­lim­i­nary com­pe­ti­tion.

The “Miss Con­ge­nial­i­ty” award in the com­pe­ti­tion is usu­al­ly award­ed to the con­tes­tant who is seen as friend­ly, ap­proach­able, and most kind-heart­ed among the con­tes­tants.

Speak­ing at the pre­lim­i­nar­ies of the com­pe­ti­tion, in a video post­ed on the Miss Uni­verse so­cial me­dia pages, Thongs said she felt, “so blessed and ho­n­oured to be giv­en this award be­cause it just tru­ly means that I set out what I came here to do and that’s make last­ing con­nec­tions and im­pres­sions with the girls and the team, every­one. But hon­est­ly, this win is not just my own, it’s a win for all of us be­cause we re­al­ly be­lieve in women em­pow­er­ment and en­sur­ing that we re­spect each oth­er’s cul­ture, we re­spect each oth­er’s dif­fer­ences be­cause tru­ly there’s more that brings us to­geth­er than what sep­a­rates us.”

In a post by the Miss Uni­verse team, they said, “We’re thrilled to an­nounce Jenelle Thongs as our Miss Con­ge­nial­i­ty win­ner! Her kind­ness and warmth have cap­tured our hearts.”

Thongs, and the lo­cal or­gan­is­ers have been fac­ing scruti­ny on­line as pic­tures and videos sur­faced of the T&T del­e­gate wear­ing what some con­sid­ered to be less-than-flat­ter­ing clothes in com­par­i­son to oth­er con­tes­tants.

How­ev­er, no one from the TT Miss Uni­verse camp has ac­knowl­edged the is­sue.

The fi­nals for the 73rd Miss Uni­verse 2024 com­pe­ti­tion will take place at the Are­na CD­MX in Mex­i­co City, Mex­i­co, on 16 No­vem­ber 2024.