Tahje Bennett triumphs in second shot at Miss Ja World title
Published:Saturday | September 7, 2024 | 12:15 AM
Miss Jamaica World has a new queen. Twenty-four-year-old aspiring attorney Tahje Bennett was crowned by Miss Jamaica World 2022 Shanique Singh, the island's second-longest reigning Miss Jamaica World, at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel on Friday night.
This is Bennett's second time entering the Miss Jamaica World pageant, having first entered in 2022.
Twenty-one-year-old aspiring actuary Jamila McGowan was named first runner-up and Shanelle Kellyman, a 25-year-old creative in the event and marketing industry, was second runner-up.
Passionate about empowering women and young girls, particularly those who have experienced gender-based violence, Bennett also won the Beauty with a Purpose fast-track competition and the Multimedia sectional award.
Kellyman, winner of the Talent Fast-Track, was named Most Poised.
Other sectional awardees included Lianne Fullwood, Most Congenial; Nikayla Davis, Best Personality and Shanae Brown, Best Smile.
In the lead-up to the competition, Chris-Shann Grant took top honours for the Fitness Challenge; Aliah Clark, Top Model Challenge and Brown, the Swimwear Competition.
Bennett will represent Jamaica at the 72nd Miss World Festival in early 2025.
The reigning Miss World is the Czech Republic’s Krystyna Pyszková.
Jamaica has won the Miss World title four times, the most recent being Toni-Ann Singh in 2019. Toni-Ann Singh was the longest reigning Miss World in the pageant's history, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.