Trini wins in China

TRINIDAD and Tobago’s reputation for producing beautiful and vivacious women is now firmly established in the Far East with the triumph of Aqiyla Gomez in the Miss Model of the World Competition held on Friday at Hangzhou in the Zhejiang province of China. TT’s 22-year-old charmer, a clerk at the Frederick Street branch of Western Union Money Transfer, won the title from a field of 59 candidates from different parts of the world. Aqiyla also won the Miss Physique section of the contest but, apart from her physical beauty, it must have been her Trini personality, her vivacity and natural effervescence, that combined to place her above the rest.

Aqiyla’s Trini-to-the-bone credentials made her a wonderul representative of our country in this international pageant. A past student of St Francois Girls’ High School, she is a former Coco Velvet model, a pannist and athlete who once trained with Memphis Sports Club. She comes from a family of pan enthusiasts and academic achievers. Her father is the former captain of Petrotrin Phase II Pan Groove and her brother, Ceon, who holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in music was pan arranger for Laventille Sound Specialists and Scrunters Pan Groove. Her sister, Camila, is pursuing a degree in Biology at the University of North Carolina, USA.

Aqiyla’s achievement is all the more gratifying because she is the first TT entrant into this competition which - beginning, strangely enough, in Turkey - is now in its 16th year. Her victory will most likely change her life, at least for the immediate future, since we understand she will now have, among her prizes, opportunities for beginning a top-flight career in modelling. Every true-true Trini will wish her the best. Aqiyla is the latest addition to a delightful list of TT beauties who have done us proud abroad, who participated with distinction in international pageants, starting with the crowning of Penny Commissiong as Miss Universe in 1977.

Wendy Fitzwilliam scored a winning double for TT in this competition in 1998, while Giselle La Ronde brought home the equally prestigious title of Miss World in 1986. Michelle Khan produced a record of her own by placing third in the Miss Universe contest in 1995 and, two years later, winning the Top Model of the World title in Germany. As her prize she worked for two years in Spain on contract. Then there were Althea Rocke and Faye Alibocas who kept our flag flying by respectively placing sixth in the Miss World pageant and finishing among the ten finalists in the Miss Universe competition.

We make bold to say that no other country of our size and population has won more distinctions in international beauty and modelling competitions than TT and that our representatives have earned their success not simply on the basis of their physical attractiveness but also by virtue of their quick intelligence and the personal vitality that marks them as products of Trinidad and Tobago. Our congratulations to Aqiyla. It is good that she has also been an unofficial ambassador of our country to China which is now rapidly emerging as another of the world’s economic super powers. The impact of her victory can only benefit us.