Back-to-back wins for Eustace, Omalo as Carnival King and Queen

DEREK ACHONG

Se­nior Re­porter

[email protected]

Record Car­ni­val King Cur­tis Eu­stace has strong­ly crit­i­cised the T&T Car­ni­val Bands As­so­ci­a­tion (TTC­BA) for its or­gan­i­sa­tion of this year’s Car­ni­val King and Queen com­pe­ti­tion.

Eu­stace, who man­aged to suc­cess­ful­ly de­fend the crown he won in 2025 to in­crease his im­pres­sive record to 11 ti­tles, is­sued the sting­ing cri­tique as he un­cer­e­mo­ni­ous­ly ex­it­ed the stage at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah af­ter be­ing an­nounced the win­ner on Sun­day night.

He point­ed out that while the top per­form­ers in the Ca­lyp­so Monarch com­pe­ti­tion, host­ed by the Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans Or­gan­i­sa­tion (TU­CO), were pre­sent­ed with tro­phies and told of their prizes, he and 2026 Car­ni­val Queen Rox­anne Oma­lo were left in the dark in terms of their re­wards and were made to stand awk­ward­ly dur­ing the prize-giv­ing cer­e­mo­ny.

Oma­lo se­cured a hat-trick of ti­tles fol­low­ing back-to-back vic­to­ries in 2024 and last year, bring­ing her record haul of ti­tles in the Car­ni­val Queen com­pe­ti­tion to five.

Eu­stace said, “We all know when Car­ni­val is, so every­one has a year to work. You could not rent a tro­phy?

“It is very em­bar­rass­ing to go on that stage, and you don’t even have a tro­phy to hold,” he added.

He said the treat­ment was de­mor­al­is­ing since the prize mon­ey for the com­pe­ti­tion is usu­al­ly on­ly a frac­tion of the costs as­so­ci­at­ed with the grandiose and in­no­v­a­tive pre­sen­ta­tions syn­ony­mous with his fam­i­ly.

“The fourth place in the ca­lyp­so gained more mon­ey than the King of Car­ni­val. Some­thing is wrong,” he said, as he was care­ful to note that he did not bear a grudge over the dis­par­i­ty.

“TU­CO is ac­tu­al­ly look­ing out for their own, and I ap­plaud them for that,” he said.

De­spite the peren­ni­al is­sue, which seemed to be ad­dressed last year when both he and Oma­lo were each giv­en a new ve­hi­cle in ad­di­tion to a cash prize, Eu­stace ad­mit­ted that it would not de­ter his fam­i­ly from con­tin­u­ing their dom­i­nance in the com­pe­ti­tion, which start­ed with his fa­ther over 70 years ago.

“We love Car­ni­val. Car­ni­val is in our DNA,” he said.

Eu­stace ad­mit­ted that he had to re­cov­er from a less-than-ide­al semi­fi­nal show­ing af­ter he and the oth­er Car­ni­val Kings were forced to com­pete for a spot in the fi­nals at the So­cadrome on Car­ni­val Fri­day af­ter their semi­fi­nal had to be can­celled due to heavy rain days ear­li­er.

He said that his cos­tume was ham­pered by the rub­ber floor­ing on the stage at the tem­po­rary venue, as it was de­signed to roll smooth­ly over the ply­wood stage at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah.

“At the end of the day, that is show­biz,” he said.

He said that he felt that he and his fam­i­ly were wor­thy win­ners once again.

“We eat and breathe Car­ni­val, so what­ev­er comes our way, we de­serve it,” Eu­stace said.

Eu­stace’s pre­sen­ta­tion Spir­it of D Maraye was eas­i­ly the most elab­o­rate in the com­pe­ti­tion.

It fea­tured a mon­strous winged crea­ture with gold, black and sil­ver scales which glit­tered un­der the stage light­ing at the venue.

It was equal­ly im­pres­sive in de­sign and en­gi­neer­ing as Eu­stace left the au­di­ence in awe as he un­furled the cos­tume’s gi­gan­tic wingspan and seemed to con­jure the flu­id move­ment of the crea­ture’s limbs.

Eu­stace lat­er ex­plained that com­pressed air or pneu­mat­ics was used to cre­ate the me­chan­i­cal danc­ing mo­tions with­out ap­pear­ing ro­bot­ic.

His broth­er Ted, who al­so par­tic­i­pat­ed, was un­suc­cess­ful in his bid to se­cure an­oth­er ti­tle as he end­ed with a fifth-place fin­ish de­spite the size and in­tri­ca­cy of his cos­tume.

Oma­lo’s cos­tume, which im­pressed in the pre­lim­i­nary rounds and in the fi­nals, was al­so de­signed by Eu­stace’s broth­er Mar­cus, who holds the record for wins by a de­sign­er.

Oma­lo was in­vit­ed to join the Eu­stace team af­ter she part­ed ways with San­gre Grande-based de­sign­er Var­ma Leo Lakhan fol­low­ing her vic­to­ry in last year’s com­pe­ti­tion.

While she did not want to dwell on the dis­pute, Oma­lo ad­mit­ted it did part­ly in­spire her per­for­mance.

“Last year was bit­ter­sweet, but I am the kind of per­son who does not hold any­one to a grudge,” she said.

“You must treat peo­ple with fair­ness and hon­esty, and you will al­ways have them by your side. Don’t take peo­ple for grant­ed,” she added.

She ded­i­cat­ed her win to her chil­dren and her com­mu­ni­ty of Ma­yaro.

She said she was con­fi­dent that she would give a good show­ing in the fi­nals as she was a favourite in the pre­lim­i­nary rounds de­spite not util­is­ing the me­chan­i­cal el­e­ments of her mas­sive bird-themed cos­tume.

“The man above does not sleep ... Thank you fa­ther,” she said.

Lakhan still en­joyed a suc­ces­sive com­pe­ti­tion with two of his im­pres­sive cos­tumes worn by mas­quer­aders Cher­ry-Ann Valere and Sav­it­ri Ho­lassie, se­cur­ing sec­ond and third place be­hind Oma­lo.

1. Rox­anne Oma­lo - Duchess of the Dark Skies - 431

2. Cher­ry-Ann Valere - Mor­gana-Em­press of the Un­der­world - 418

3. Sav­it­ri Ho­lassie - Ma­ma Isi­bon­go- Em­press of Zu­l­u­land - 410

4. Shynel Brizan - I am Africa, Aja Laive, Aja Lorun - 404

5. Shi­nese Valere - Re­flec­tion of Light and Beau­ty - 394

6. Shirley-Ann Psy­che Alex­is-Dil­lion - The Pol­li­nat­ing Ma­tri­arch - 391

7. Tur­ona Ramb­harose -Colours of Gems and Jew­els - 385

8. Priya Na­gas­sar - Benev­o­lent-Sap­phire Sea God­dess -382

8. Pe­o­la Marchan -Vi­o­let Crest Guardian Birds - 382

9. Rana Khan­doo -Chan­cha­la-The Ser­pent Charmer - 377

1. Cur­tis Eu­stace - Spir­it of “D” Maraye - 437

2. Arif Gran­tum - The Mid­night Vis­i­tor - 426

3. Ravi Lakhan - The Glass Phan­tom - 408

3. Roop­nar­ine Ram­per­sad - The Silent Preda­tor of the Reef - 408

5. Ted Eu­stace - R’hllor-Lord of Fire and Ice - 393

6. Rus­sell Grant - Afro Cul­ture - 392

7. Ray­mond Mark - King Blue in the Mas­quer­ade Ball - 389

7. Adri­an Young - The Gold­en Moko: Eyes of the An­ces­tors -389

9. Fareid Car­val­ho - Fu­tu­ra­ma-The Pow­er from Be­yond - 384

10. Daniel Bas­combe - Mmiri Ozu­zo, Rain Down on Me - 383