Steeple crowned Chaguanas’ first stickfighting champion

SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

Tris­ton Steeple has been crowned the first stick­fight­ing cham­pi­on of Ch­agua­nas. Steeple, 22, of Or­ange Field Road, Cara­pichaima, Cen­tral Trinidad, de­feat­ed a bar­rage of sea­soned vet­er­ans and de­ter­mined new­com­ers on Fri­day night, when the Ch­agua­nas Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee host­ed its in­au­gur­al stick­fight­ing com­pe­ti­tion on the mas­sive stage at Ram­saran Street.

Steeple re­ceived a mas­sive tro­phy and a cheque for $7,000 from Avi­dan Prop­er­ties Lim­it­ed, the event’s spon­sor.

Thou­sands who at­tend­ed the high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed free event were al­so treat­ed to live per­for­mances by Young Bred­da, and Ch­agua­nas’ own La­dy La­va, who was swamped by fans ea­ger to take self­ies af­ter de­liv­er­ing an ex­hil­a­rat­ing per­for­mance.

May­or Faaiq Mo­hammed pledged a safe Car­ni­val sea­son and the in­tro­duc­tion of new events.

“We have the full sup­port of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice and the Ch­agua­nas Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice,” he said.

He added that the stage was con­struct­ed af­ter ten years of ap­peals by mas­quer­aders.

“We will on­ly im­prove from this and car­ry it for­ward.”

CCC Chair­man Melis­sa Jadoo­nanan said the com­mit­tee had re­ceived sub­ven­tions and tremen­dous sup­port from the pri­vate sec­tor.

“We are grate­ful that the pri­vate sec­tor has re­alised the im­por­tance of cul­ture and tra­di­tions,” Jadoo­nanan said, not­ing that the turnout ex­ceed­ed ex­pec­ta­tions.