Un­der the ra­di­ant ear­ly morn­ing sun at Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, the elec­tric at­mos­phere set the stage for what was to be­come a day of fierce com­pe­ti­tion, uni­ty, and cel­e­bra­tion at the 2024 edi­tion of the Car­iFin Games Cross Coun­try races and Fam­i­ly Day event, both held on June 9.

Fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tions from across Trinidad and To­ba­go, in­clud­ing stal­warts such as Sco­tia­bank, Re­pub­lic Bank, Cen­tral Bank of Trinidad and To­ba­go (CBTT), Min­istry of Fi­nance, First Cit­i­zens, Sagi­cor, and Unit Trust Cor­po­ra­tion, came to­geth­er in the spir­it of “Fun, Fit­ness, and Friend­ship.”

The day was marked not on­ly by com­pe­ti­tion but al­so by un­pre­dictable weath­er, with rain show­ers in­ter­rupt­ing the pro­ceed­ings twice. How­ev­er, the un­ex­pect­ed down­pours did not damp­en the spir­its of the ath­letes or spec­ta­tors. Some events con­tin­ued in the rain, show­cas­ing the re­silience and de­ter­mi­na­tion of par­tic­i­pants, em­body­ing the true spir­it of the Car­iFin Games.

The high­light of the day was the awe-in­spir­ing per­for­mance by Team Sco­tia­bank, who dom­i­nat­ed the cross-coun­try run in both the men’s and women’s cat­e­gories, show­cas­ing their ath­let­ic prowess and team spir­it. Shay Gon­za­les led the charge by clinch­ing first place in the men’s 6K road race with a stel­lar time of 24 min­utes and 22 sec­onds, close­ly fol­lowed by fierce com­pe­ti­tion from run­ners from Re­pub­lic Bank and the Min­istry of Fi­nance.

“I’m ex­treme­ly grate­ful for this win,” said Shay Gon­za­les of Sco­tia­bank. “I give ho­n­our to God most im­por­tant­ly for the strength to en­dure. The Car­iFin Games cross coun­try is al­ways chal­leng­ing, but with my plan and the in­cred­i­ble sup­port, it all came to­geth­er. Con­grat­u­la­tions to every­one who fin­ished – that’s what makes us all win­ners. Thank you to my fel­low Sco­tia­bankers and all the sup­port­ers for their en­cour­age­ment.”

The women’s 4K race was no less dra­mat­ic, with Di­anne Den­ny of Sco­tia­bank com­plet­ing the course in a fan­tas­tic time of 19 min­utes and 44 sec­onds, main­tain­ing her un­beat­en streak in this year’s run­ning events. Her per­for­mance not on­ly high­light­ed her ex­cep­tion­al ath­leti­cism but al­so un­der­scored Sco­tia­bank’s over­all dom­i­nance in the 2024 Games.

In the walk­ing races, Bri­an Je­re­mie of CBTT de­fend­ed his ti­tle with re­mark­able grit, post­ing an im­pres­sive time of 18 min­utes and six sec­onds, while Chris­tine Vil­lafana from Re­pub­lic Bank Lim­it­ed topped the women’s walk­ing race, lead­ing her team to a re­mark­able sweep of the top po­si­tions.

Chris­tine Vil­lafana, win­ner of the women’s cross-coun­try walk said af­ter he vic­to­ry, “Win­ning first place in this year’s Car­iFin Games brought back mem­o­ries of my vic­to­ry in 2015. It’s a won­der­ful feel­ing to know that af­ter near­ly a decade, I can still com­pete at this lev­el. This win proves that ded­i­ca­tion and per­se­ver­ance pay off in the long run.”

As the day un­fold­ed, Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah trans­formed in­to a vi­brant fes­ti­val ground, res­onat­ing with laugh­ter and team spir­it. Be­yond the races, par­tic­i­pants en­gaged in spir­it­ed nov­el­ty events and a live­ly dance-off, show­cas­ing both ath­leti­cism and cre­ativ­i­ty. Sco­tia­bank flexed its mus­cles to re­tain its tug-of-war ti­tle, while Trinidad and To­ba­go Unit Trust Cor­po­ra­tion im­pressed all with their in­no­v­a­tive dig­i­tal dis­play, clinch­ing the Best Tent Decor award. These di­verse ac­tiv­i­ties un­der­scored the event’s role in fos­ter­ing ca­ma­raderie across the fi­nan­cial sec­tor.

Team Sco­tia­bank’s vic­to­ry is a bea­con of in­spi­ra­tion for all par­tic­i­pat­ing in­sti­tu­tions, prov­ing that through team­work, ded­i­ca­tion, and a fo­cus on well­ness, suc­cess is not just a pos­si­bil­i­ty, but an ex­pec­ta­tion.

Gayle Pa­zos, Se­nior Vice Pres­i­dent and Man­ag­ing Di­rec­tor of Sco­tia­bank Trinidad and To­ba­go, shared her thoughts on the event: “I am ab­solute­ly thrilled with my team’s per­for­mance at this year’s Car­iFin Games. Our suc­cess is a tes­ta­ment to the ded­i­ca­tion, team­work, and pas­sion of our em­ploy­ees. Be­yond the podi­um fin­ish­es, what tru­ly stands out is the ca­ma­raderie and en­er­gy seen across all in­sti­tu­tions. Events like Car­iFin re­mind us of the im­por­tance of health and uni­ty in our sec­tor. We’re proud to be part of an in­dus­try that val­ues not just pro­fes­sion­al ex­cel­lence, but al­so per­son­al well-be­ing and com­mu­ni­ty spir­it. Con­grat­u­la­tions to all par­tic­i­pants – you’ve all demon­strat­ed the true sense of what makes our fi­nan­cial sec­tor strong.”

As the sun set on an un­for­get­table day of sports­man­ship and cel­e­bra­tion, the par­tic­i­pants, or­ga­niz­ers, vol­un­teers, and spon­sors could look back with pride at a job well done. The 2024 Car­iFin Games were not just a se­ries of events, but a pow­er­ful demon­stra­tion of com­mu­ni­ty and the hu­man spir­it with­in Trinidad and To­ba­go’

The Car­iFin Games is an an­nu­al se­ries of events that pro­motes health, fit­ness, and ca­ma­raderie among em­ploy­ees of the fi­nan­cial ser­vices sec­tor in Trinidad and To­ba­go. Em­pha­siz­ing a holis­tic ap­proach to well­ness, the Games in­clude a va­ri­ety of ath­let­ic and fun ac­tiv­i­ties, aimed at fos­ter­ing friend­ly com­pe­ti­tion and strength­en­ing in­ter-com­pa­ny re­la­tion­ships.