By Joan Rampersad Wednesday, September 14 2011

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LEILA WINS: Miss Angola Leila Lopes reacts after winning the 2011 Miss Universe pageant at the Credicard Hall, Sao Paulo, Brazil on Monday night. Lope...

The national costume worn by the Miss Trinidad and Tobago delegate at the 2011 Miss Universe Beauty Pageant, Gabrielle Walcott, was adjudged the sixth best costume in the international competition which was held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Monday night.

The costume, Ibizia, was designed by Monique Nobrega for Tribe Carnival’s 2012 Trinidad Carnival Presentation Take Me To…

Walcott never got to show off her gown made by Zadd and Eastman on competition night, having been eliminated after the first round of competition on Monday night.

During the Pageant’s telecast though, there were two other moments that TT can remember with pride. The first came during a special segment highlighting past winners and which featured the crowning of the first black Miss Universe in 1977, TT’s Janelle “Penny” Commissiong.

Then later in the live broadcast, commentary host Shandi Finnessey likened Leila Lopes of Angola to Miss Universe 1999, TT’s Wendy Fitzwilliam, this before Lopes was even crowned Miss Universe 2011.

Walcott was one of 89 Miss Universe 2011 delegates who spent the past three weeks in Sao Paulo, learning samba dance steps, visiting impoverished children and kicking a football around for cameras as the Miss Universe pageant came to Brazil for the first time.

The newly crowned Miss Universe hopes her victory will allow her to assist her native Angola further escape its history of war and impoverishment and said she plans to focus on combating HIV around the globe.

“I’ve worked with various social causes. I work with poor kids, I work in the fight against HIV. I work to protect the elderly and I have to do everything that my country needs,” she said. Lopes captivated the crowd with her winning smile and her friendliness. It is what fans felt set her apart from the others. Battling against a home country favourite, Lopes spoke in Portuguese.

Angola, like Brazil, is a former Portuguese colony.

But the icing on the cake was when she was asked what physical trait she would change if she could. Her reply was, “Thank God I’m very satisfied with the way God created me and I wouldn’t change a thing. I consider myself a woman endowed with inner beauty. I have acquired many wonderful principles from my family and I intend to follow these for the rest of my life.”

The first runner-up in the Pageant was 23-year-old Olesia Stefanko of Ukraine and the second runner-up was Priscila Machado of Brazil.

In fourth place was Miss Philippines while Miss China was in fifth place.

In the 60th year of the Miss Universe competition, Miss Angola is only the fourth black woman to win the title, following Commissiong in 1977, Fitzwilliam in 1998 and Botswana’s Mpule Kwelagobe in 1999.