Steeple wins inaugural Chaguanas stickfighting showdown

Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

Tris­ton Steeple has been crowned the first stick­fight­ing cham­pi­on of Ch­agua­nas. The 22-year-old of Or­ange Field Road, Cara­pichaima, 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 walked away with a large tro­phy and a $7,000 cheque, cour­tesy event spon­sor Avi­dan Prop­er­ties Lim­it­ed.

Thou­sands turned out for the high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed free event, which al­so fea­tured live per­for­mances by Young Bred­da and Ch­agua­nas’ own La­dy La­va. La­dy La­va was swamped by fans ea­ger to take self­ies af­ter de­liv­er­ing an elec­tri­fy­ing per­for­mance.

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

“We have the full sup­port of the TTPS and the 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.”

Ch­agua­nas Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee (CCC) Chair­man Melis­sa Jadoo­nanan said the com­mit­tee re­ceived sub­ven­tions and tremen­dous sup­port from the pri­vate sec­tor.

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