YESTERDAY was not a crowning moment for reigning Miss Jamaica World, 22-year-old Sara Lawrence who announced she had relinquished her title because of pregnancy, a first in the 23-year history of the annual pageant.

“I relinquish my position as Miss Jamaica World 2006, having taken a deeply personal decision to face up to my responsibilities as one who expects to become a mother later this year,” Lawrence said in a prepared statement agreed with Mickey Haughton James, head of Spartan, organisers of the pageant.

“This has been a tremendously difficult period for me. I crave the understanding of my many supporters at home and abroad and hope that people everywhere who have shown me such kindness and love will respect my position,” Lawrence appealed.

In keeping with the practice of the Miss Jamaica World Beauty Pageant, the crown will go to first runner-up, Christelle Harris, granddaughter of well-known couple, Laurie and Ruth Hussey, owners of the Terra Nova All Suuite Hotel in Kingston.

“I’m not really in a position to discuss any options since I have not yet been contacted by Mickey Haughton James,” Harris said when contacted by the Observer last night.

But Lawrence got ready support from two former Jamaican queens who went on to win the Miss World title – Cindy Breakespeare and Lisa Hanna.

“It’s unfortunate that it (her pregnancy) clashes with her present commitments but bringing a new life into this world is clearly the greatest joy and commitment right now,” said Breakespeare, Miss World 1976. “It is for her family now to throw their full support behind her.”

Miss World 1993 Lisa Hanna, now a mother, said briefly: “Children are a blessing and I wish her all the best.”

Haughton James was unavailable at Observer press time, but a statement on the Spartan website said Lawrence had made “an error of judgement” but was facing up to the consequences “in a forthright manner”.

In a brief statement also, Lawrence’s parents, Steve and Beverley Lawrence, said: “We regret Sara’s act of indiscretion. Nevertheless, as parents, our responsibility will remain to provide support, and assist her with guidance and understanding through this difficult time.”

Sara Lawrence, niece of Dr Vin Lawrence, the former head of the state-owned Urban Development Corporation (UDC), said she had not been pressured by anyone, including Spartan, to relinquish her crown.

“I did my last assignment Friday last, and handed my letter of resignation to Mickey Haughton James on Monday,” she said.

Lawrence won the coveted crown on August 19, 2006 and later went on to place sixth at the Miss World competition held in Warsaw, Poland where she was also named Miss World Regional (Caribbean).

She declined in an interview with the Observer to name the child’s father saying: “I really do not think we need to bring him into this.He deserves his privacy.”

Lawrence also ruled out immediate marriage, adding that that could come later but not right now. “I won’t be rushing into it because I am now pregnant,” she insisted.

In fact, Lawrence, whose child is due in September, plans to continue her studies which were interrupted when she took the beauty crown. She is awaiting acceptance at the UWI (Mona) Faculty of Medicine where she plans to specialise in obstetrics and gynaecology.

Lawrence, who appeared calm and composed but a tad nervous in the Observer interview, said “it is my moral obligation to do what I believe to be ethically correct and follow what I believe in my heart to be right” in giving up her title.

The Spartan website statement said Lawrence had “another way out of the predicament”, a hint that she could have chosen abortion but did not.

“. Perhaps most other young women would have chosen that path,” it said.

According to the criteria for entry into the pageant, contestants must not have given birth to a child prior to entering and the winner “must be prepared to be a positive role model for the youth of Jamaica.”

Lawrence attended Immaculate Conception High School and is a graduate of Randolph Macon Women’s College in Virginia where she majored in Biology. Since gaining the Miss Jamaica World title, she has worked closely with Jamaica AIDS Support.

She becomes the first Miss Jamaica to relinquish the crown during her reign. Former Miss Universe (1998), Trinidadian Wendy Fitzwilliam caused a major stir in Trinidad when she announced her out-of-marriage pregnancy at the Corpus Christi Roman Catholic all-girls school in January 2006.