Thir­teen-year-old An­to­nio Ram­per­sad added to his fam­i­ly’s rich Car­ni­val lega­cy when he was crowned this year’s Ju­nior King of Car­ni­val on Wednes­day night. 

Ram­per­sad, whose grand­moth­er Glo­ria Dalls­ingh and fa­ther Mar­lon have won mul­ti­ple San Fer­nan­do Car­ni­val King and Queen ti­tles and whose moth­er Lau­ra is a peren­ni­al fi­nal­ist in the na­tion­al Car­ni­val Queen com­pe­ti­tion, topped nine com­peti­tors to earn his first crown. 

“It is a re­al­ly good feel­ing. I am over­come with emo­tions. It’s a lot,” Ram­per­sad said, in a brief in­ter­view as he wait­ed to sup­port his fa­ther in his lat­er pre­sen­ta­tion. 

The AS­JA Boys’ Col­lege stu­dent, who joined his fam­i­ly in com­pet­ing when he was five years old, pre­sent­ed a mul­ti-coloured cos­tume, which sought to pay trib­ute to the well-pre­served Car­ni­val tra­di­tions of the coun­try’s sec­ond city. 

The cos­tume, based on his fam­i­ly’s trade­mark wheel-less de­sign, was one of the largest in the ju­nior com­pe­ti­tion. 

Ram­per­sad, who placed sixth in last year’s com­pe­ti­tion, man­aged to im­press the judges with his abil­i­ty to grace­ful­ly dance and show­case his cos­tume with seem­ing­ly min­i­mal ef­fort as he crossed the stage to Voice and Patrice Roberts’ Car­ni­val Day. 

He al­so shocked those present by un­ex­pect­ed­ly re­leas­ing con­fet­ti from an ap­pen­dix of his cos­tume while per­form­ing in front of the au­di­ence, which packed the cen­tre sec­tion of the three-part Grand Stand at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah. 

Last year’s Ju­nior Car­ni­val King Jarel Pe­ters put up an ad­mi­ral de­fence of his crown as he placed fourth in this year’s com­pe­ti­tion with his bee-themed pre­sen­ta­tion “A Taste Of Hon­ey” which he per­formed to Lord Kitch­en­er’s groovy clas­sic Bee’s Melody. 

In the Ju­nior Car­ni­val Queen com­pe­ti­tion, Jay­da Forde, like Ram­per­sad, im­proved on her sixth-place fin­ish, last year, to earn the top spot. 

Her trib­al-themed pre­sen­ta­tion “Princes Eleu, Pro­tec­tor Of The Is­land” was rel­a­tive­ly small but fea­tured in­tri­cate­ly de­signed masks and drums, which she ap­peared to whim­si­cal­ly play whilst cross­ing the stage. 

In the schools’ com­pe­ti­tion, Ju­nior King Leonar­do Fe­li­cien’s lep­rechaun-in­spired “Gold’s Re­venge” wowed the judges as he scat­tered “gold’ coins as he danced around the stage. 

Azelia Mills’ dain­ty but daz­zling pre­sen­ta­tion “Princess Set In Di­a­monds”, which fea­tured lay­ers of se­quin lined fab­ric, that sparkled un­der the stage, earned her top spot in the school’s com­pe­ti­tion. Mills placed sec­ond in the com­pe­ti­tion last year. 

Re­sults

Ju­nior Queen of Car­ni­val (Schools)

1. Azelia Mills - Princess Set In Di­a­monds - 418

2. Aliya De Souza - African Gold­en Ori­ole - 408

3. Makay­la Ques­tel-Fred­er­ick - Fire God­dess - 403

4. McKen­zie Far­in­ha - Madame Co­coyea - 394

5. Anyah Spence - Dhobin Wash­er Woman - 367

6. Renell Oliv­er - A Splash Of Col­or - 362

Ju­nior Queen of Car­ni­val (Non-Schools)

1.Jay­da Forde - Princes Eleu, Pro­tec­tor Of The Is­land - 428

2. Shali­ah Jag­gasar - When It Rains It Pours - 423

3. Ja­da-Marie Mo­hammed - Pachama­ma - 417

4. Lev­anughn Clarke - All That Glit­ters Is Not Gold - 414

5. Surayya Car­ring­ton - Sil­hou­ette Of A Span­ish Woman - 408 

6. Shaniya Far­ri­er - The Beau­ty Of Opal - 402

7. Kioni Is­sac-Ox­ley - Bird Of Life And Light - 389

8. Jae-Marie James - Mayu­ra-Scared Bird Of Par­adise - 383 

9. J’Nai Ed­wards - Splen­dour Of Life - 380

10. Zoey Walk­er - Par­adise Bird Of Love - 377

Ju­nior King of Car­ni­val (Schools)

1. Leonar­do Fe­li­cien - Gold’s Re­venge - 410 

2. Pe­ter Bar­row - Chief Of The Mang­be­tu Tribe- A Trib­ute To Owen Hinds - 396

3. Kevon Green - Pe­tit Voleur - 395

4. Ar­mani Spence - Pa­pa Bois D For­est Pro­tec­tor - 373

Ju­nior King of Car­ni­val (Non-Schools)

1. An­to­nio Ram­per­sad - ‘Bazooee’-The Spir­it Of San­do Car­ni­val - 444

2. Shamar Q Col­lis - Ah Just Pass To Show Meh Face - 429

3. Khyri-Jaalam Williams - No­ble­man From Venice - 420

4. Jarel Pe­ters - A Taste Of Hon­ey - 400

5. Shi­heem Mu­a­ta - Realm - 390

6. Ar­mani Gas­pard - Bush Doc­tor - 388

7. J-Vion Moses - Out Of Africa - 386

8. Ken­zikhia Brown - Sha­ka - 380

9. Deyjon Carabon - The Man With De Ham­mer In Par­adise - 377

10. Shal­hon White - Hump­ty Dump­ty - 370