Miss West Indies: Asha Pieters when she arrived back in Guyana yesterday.
ASHA Pieters glows with so much childish innocence that it is almost unimaginable that she could have achieved the feat, but she did.

When she was chosen to travel to St. Lucia to represent Guyana at the Miss West Indies pageant a week ago, Asha said she wanted to win but didn't expect to.

The contest was held last Sunday and Guyana's delegate charmed and excited the crowd all the way to the crown.

At the age of 18, Asha was the youngest of the 10 delegates.

Those she competed against were from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Ecuador, St. Vincent, Grenada, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Anguilla.

The pageant was a great experience for Asha and she is confident that more international crowns will come her way, including that of Miss Universe.
Asha was crowned Miss Talented Teen in 2001 and represented Guyana at the Miss Teen Caribbean pageant this past January at which she won the Best Talent prize. She also competed in this year's Miss Guyana/Universe Pageant and copped the fourth runner-up spot.

From the time she landed in St. Lucia, she met a Guyanese woman at the Rex St. Lucian Hotel who volunteered to be her chaperone. Other Guyanese were soon introduced to the Guyanese beauty and her visits around the island included a meeting with a Guyanese cricket team.

"The Guyanese Federation sold tickets for me. They picked me up at the hotel and took me out", she related.

The pageant consisted of many segments - talent, spectacular national costume, sophisticated look, evening gown, swimsuit and question and answer.

Asha's evening gown, designed by Michelle Cole, was the same she wore on the night of the Miss Guyana/Universe Pageant, as shown on yesterday's front page of the Chronicle.

For her talent piece, Asha performed the dramatic poem entitled "I'm a Guyanese". The same talent piece won her the best talent prize at the Miss Teen Caribbean pageant, and it landed her the same prize this time round too.

Miss West Indies, Asha Pieters takes a look back at the Guyana `Golden Arrowhead' and this year's Miss Guyana Talented Teen contestants. The delegates were on hand at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport to greet Asha. (Corwin Williams photos)
Her national costume depicted Guyana for what it is best known - Kaiteur Falls, the rich mineral resources, the Amerindians and the world's most powerful bird of prey, the Harpy Eagle.

"I think that what made me win was that I had a lot of confidence and I used that to get the support of the audience from the start. I wanted to win, but didn't expect to. One of the things that I have learnt is that if you want crowd support, you have to hit it off from the start", Asha told the Chronicle yesterday.

She said when she first came out dressed in her costume, the audience went wild as she simply didn't wear the costume, but she "loosened" up her body and paraded on stage `Mashramani style'.

Asha's opening line "From Guyana to my fellow West Indians" is what made her a crowd favourite. She said that while she portrayed herself as a proud Guyanese, she made sure the crowd understood that she was also a proud West Indian.

According to Asha, her swimsuit also had the crowd in uproar. She came out on stage in a robe and let it loose to show off the two-piece swimsuit by her designer Olympia Small.

Asha won the "Sacha face" and the swimsuit competitions at the Miss Guyana/Universe Pageant.

In the question segment, Asha said she was asked to tell what she likes best about Guyana.

"Our beautiful Kaieteur Falls, powering down from the Potaro River at 741 feet, making it the largest single drop waterfall in the world. Also, our white sand beaches and Amerindian resorts display a scenic beauty for all to enjoy. That's what I like about my country", was her response.

When she came off stage, Asha said she knew she had won the crown.

No finalists were narrowed down in the competition, she said.

Asha related the moment that led up to her crowning.

"The M.C announced Trinidad the second runner-up and El Salvador as the first runner-up. Then she put the microphone to the audience and asked 'Who's the queen of the night?' The people shouted back 'Guyana'!. At that point, the tears started rolling down. She did the same thing three times and then announced me as the winner".

Asha will appear in an upcoming issue of the popular magazine 'Black Women', which covered the pageant.

The queen has many people to thank for her success. Asha told the Chronicle that her parents and grandparents, aunt Dorothy and uncle Carl are the driving forces in her life.

A Miss Denise is also topping the "Thank You" list. "Thank you for always putting up with me and my hair," are Asha's words to Denise.