CHELSEA MARIE SPENCE 2009 Jr Queen of Carnival

Wayne Bowman

Thursday, February 19th 2009

Chelsea-Marie Spence is the 2009 Junior Queen of Carnival, after getting the judges' nod at the Queen's Park Savannah, Port of Spain, on Tuesday night with her presentation, "Fact or Fiction-Is There Gold at the End of the Rainbow".

The costume comes from the family mas band, Spence Promotions, which is presenting The Rainbow Cycle this year.

However, the road to victory was not an easy one for the young lady, who, due to several challenges, missed her turn during the competition. Spence was supposed to parade before the judges in seventh place, but was not able to do so and did not make her way to the stage until all the other competitors had paraded. As she hit the stage, however, the audience seemed to be impressed, as they cheered and clapped as Spence moved fluidly across the stage.

There were 15 junior queens competing on the night and the majority of them were quite impressive, several even more eye-catching than the senior queens who participated in last week's preliminary round of that competition.

Spence scored 417 points, beating second-placed Jade Alleng by only one point. Alleng too was very impressive in portraying "Ixchel-Queen of the Sun Gods".

The kings also went through their semi-final round on the night, with Stephen Alexis topping the standings with his portrayal of "Ndlovu in Search" from the band led by Brian MacFarlane and their presentation Africa-Her People, Her Glory, Her Tears. Second and among the ten kings moving on to the final at Dimanche Gras was Curtis Eustace, who presented "Apollo's Lust" from the band Evolution. Two points separated Alexis, who scored 437, and Eustace.

Unlike the preliminaries of last week, which were plagued by rain that caused the show to start over an hour late, the show on Tuesday was blessed with good weather and a light breeze that was good for several of the costumes presented. The show began on time and moved smoothly throughout, allowing for the queens, kings and more than 50 individual characters to all cross the stage before midnight. The semi-final for the senior queens and final for the Junior King of Carnival competition takes place tomorrow at the Savannah. See Page 9

Kings making it to the final:

Stephen Alexis - 437

Curtis Eustace - 435

Roland St George - 423

Wade Madray - 422

Aaron Kalicharan - 412

Glen Turnbull - 410

Lionel Jagessar Jr - 409

Fareid Carvalho - 408

Theophilus Simmons - 404

Leroy Prieto - 403

TRINIDAD EXPRESS