Miss UG drives away with car
By Samantha Alleyne
Stabroek News
April 29, 2003
The beautiful, charming, articulate and non-controversial Luann De Costa was crowned Miss University of Guyana on Sunday evening and walked away with a car as her first prize.
De Costa, sponsored by Nigel’s Supermar-ket, was crowned fifteen minutes to midnight - early for many pageants - at the National Cultural Centre.
She surpassed seven other contestants and for the first time ever in the history of beauty pageants in Guyana, won a car donated by King Solomon Enterprise.
The deep green Marino was on stage when the delegates introduced themselves and they were seen posing next to the car before walking up to the microphone to make their introductions.
De Costa could easily have seen herself in the second spot had the judges agreed with a large section of the crowd, who were of the opinion that Genevieve Blackman should have placed first based on her answer to the final question. Instead she won a trip to New York among other prizes.
Jessica Chand, a crowd favourite until her answer to the final question, was adjudged second runner-up while Christa Simmons took the third runner-up spot. Chand will be travelling to Kaieteur Falls while Simmons won a trip to the Arrow Point Resort.
The pageant was organised by the University of Guyana Students’ Society and it coincided with the university’s 40th anniversary and also adopted the anniversary’s theme, ‘A time to reconnect.’
The queen, who also walked away with the Best Hairstyle, Miss Popularity, and Best Gown prizes, was elegant in a beautiful champagne-coloured dress which hugged her curves. The strapless dress had a shimmering effect and flowed down to the hem in a semi-fish tail style. A diamante choker and earring set did the rest drawing “ooohs and aaaahs” as she made her appearance in the evening gown segment.
Blackman, dressed in a fine-strap lilac gown, must be thanking the Almighty that she did well in the other segments because her gown certainly did her an injustice. While not as awful as some others seen at the pageant, it seemed to have been sewn for another person as it did not fit her well. This beauty, who was Miss Congeniality, captured the hearts of the crowd with her beautiful voice and charming face.
Chand, who won the best talent, was regally dressed in a purple gown while Simmons wore a skin fitting black gown that had one side sleeved.
The other contestants in the pageant were: Thandi Mc Allister, Gail Pereira, Adeike Chester and Felisha Hooper.
In the evening gown segment Chester and Pereira gave the crowd a good laugh with the gowns their designers decided to garb them in. One could not have been faulted for wondering if the two contestants were bent on providing some comic relief. In the past, designers have been criticised for outfitting young women in unflattering and ill-fitting gowns.
It was really embarrassing when one of the contestant’s breasts decided that it no longer wanted to be constrained in the tight fitting gown and popped out. The crowd did not spare her when the embarrassing incident occurred and kudos must go to this contestant for continuing in the competition seemingly undaunted.
The delegates were judged on Sunday night in four segments: their introduction, talent, evening gown and intelligence. They had already completed a rap session at the university on April 4 and a televised interview on GTV Channel 11 on April 11.
As has become the norm the pageant had a late start due to a technical problem, according to the organisers.
The master and mistress of ceremony were Ron Robinson and Juanita Huburn while the judges for the night were Joyce Sinclair, Andrea Teekasingh, Gwen Williams, Lorri Alexander, Carl Bacchus and Yale Holder.
While the pageant was not the most engaging of its kind the organisers made a good go of it and it was suggested that they should have had more entertainment as Robinson and Huburn were forced to keep repeating the names of those who had assisted in sponsoring it as they waited on the judges to tally their figures. This caused some in the crowd to scream “Again?” while others were heard grumbling that they already knew the sponsors by heart.
When the show began the curtain was lifted to reveal the beautifully decorated stage shrouded in smoke in which the girls made their first appearance in an opening dance sequence following which they formally introduced themselves.
A big screen television showed video clips of the girls taken prior to the pageant and helped to add a professional touch.
During the talent segment there were four songs, three dances and one dramatic poem. In this segment McAllister and Chand performed the best.
It was a bit surprising when McAllister was not named in the final since she had performed well on the night and from all reports had done well in the previous segments. In this segment Pereira once again was deficient, dressed in what appeared to be a Chinese outfit, she pranced from one end of the stage to the next doing the same thing over and over.
After the girls were serenaded by local artiste, Ossie Nedd the final four were chosen.
The final question asked of the four finalists was “If you had to give some words of wisdom to the youths of Guyana, what will those words of wisdom be?”
The queen said she would tell the youths to stay positive and focussed and to keep on the road to their success, and that education is the key to success.
Simmons said that first she would relate to the youths that God is the answer and they must study the words of the Holy One. They must also go to school and study and in the end they would develop into productive citizens.
Blackman said as a teacher she would advise the youths to stay in school and education would help them towards their successes; while Chand advised the youths to be themselves at all times and they would achieve everything.
Prior to the start of the pageant, President of the UGSS, Robert Bourne asked the crowd not to forget the tragedies that had recently befallen the university with the death of Yohance Douglas, the wounding of Ronson Grey and also the shooting of another student, Maria Sharma whose husband was kidnapped. Bourne also mentioned Patrick Paul, who died last week in an accident and the subsequent killing of 16-year-old Roy Bell by kidnappers. The audience was asked to stand and observe a moment’s silence for Paul and Douglas.
