Shas­tri Boodan

Trinidad and To­ba­go has cap­tured an­oth­er in­ter­na­tion­al pageant ti­tle, with lo­cal rep­re­sen­ta­tive Leeann Dass, 37, crowned Woman of the Uni­verse Elite 2026 in South Ko­rea.

Dass rep­re­sent­ed Trinidad and To­ba­go at the 47th Woman of the Uni­verse In­ter­na­tion­al Pageant on Oc­to­ber 7, com­pet­ing against ap­prox­i­mate­ly 40 del­e­gates from around the world.

She emerged as the over­all in­ter­na­tion­al win­ner, se­cur­ing one of three ma­jor ti­tles pre­sent­ed at the com­pe­ti­tion. The pageant fea­tured Miss and Mrs cat­e­gories, with the oth­er ma­jor ti­tles be­ing Miss Woman of the Uni­verse and Mrs Woman of the Uni­verse.

In ad­di­tion to her over­all vic­to­ry, Dass al­so cap­tured the Best Na­tion­al Cos­tume Award, giv­ing her an­oth­er op­por­tu­ni­ty to show­case T&T's cul­ture, her­itage and na­tion­al iden­ti­ty on the in­ter­na­tion­al stage.

Her achieve­ments in South Ko­rea ex­tend­ed be­yond the pageant it­self, as she was al­so se­lect­ed as an am­bas­sador for a lo­cal South Ko­re­an skin­care brand.

Dass de­scribed the ex­pe­ri­ence as every­thing she had imag­ined an in­ter­na­tion­al pageant would be and more.

She said the jour­ney had been an amaz­ing ex­pe­ri­ence and ex­pressed ex­cite­ment about re­turn­ing home with the in­ter­na­tion­al ti­tle.

The vic­to­ry, she be­lieves, could al­so open new doors for her per­son­al­ly and pro­fes­sion­al­ly, while cre­at­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties to fur­ther de­vel­op her ca­reer.

Na­tion­al Di­rec­tor Alvea­da Meah, who holds the Woman of the Uni­verse Trinidad and To­ba­go and Mrs Uni­verse Trinidad and To­ba­go fran­chis­es, said Dass' vic­to­ry rep­re­sents a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone for the lo­cal fran­chise.

Meah said the achieve­ment brings greater in­ter­na­tion­al recog­ni­tion to the Woman of the Uni­verse Trinidad and To­ba­go fran­chise and demon­strates the abil­i­ty of lo­cal del­e­gates to com­pete suc­cess­ful­ly at the in­ter­na­tion­al lev­el.

Dass is sched­uled to re­turn to Trinidad and To­ba­go on Oc­to­ber 10 fol­low­ing her vic­to­ry in South Ko­rea.