In a stun­ning dis­play of ath­let­ic prowess and com­mu­ni­ty spir­it, Mar­ket­ing As­so­ciate Kai Em­manuel from Unit Trust Cor­po­ra­tion (UTC) was crowned Ms Car­iFin, while Min­istry of Fi­nance em­ploy­ee Josi­ah Charles claimed the Mr Car­iFin ti­tle at Sun­day's high­ly-com­pet­i­tive an­nu­al Car­iFin Cross-Coun­try and Fam­i­ly Day.

The event, held on May 25, brought to­geth­er em­ploy­ees from across T&T's fi­nan­cial sec­tor in a cel­e­bra­tion of fit­ness, friend­ship, and in­sti­tu­tion­al pride that has been a cor­ner­stone of the fi­nan­cial com­mu­ni­ty for over three decades.

From be­hind the cam­era to cen­ter­stage

In a re­mark­able turn of events, Em­manuel, who typ­i­cal­ly works be­hind the scenes cre­at­ing so­cial me­dia con­tent and cap­tur­ing sto­ries for her in­sti­tu­tion, stepped in­to the spot­light to claim the pres­ti­gious Ms Car­iFin Fit­ness Pageant crown in her first at­tempt at the com­pe­ti­tion.

"Hon­est­ly, the process wasn't too dif­fi­cult. I did my re­search, I ob­served what the role of Ms Car­iFin was like from last year, and I told my­self: 'You're ac­tive, you're men­tal­ly strong, and you have the en­er­gy to ral­ly your team,'" Em­manuel said im­me­di­ate­ly af­ter her vic­to­ry. "I want­ed to show that no mat­ter your shape, size, or age, once you bring that en­er­gy and you're will­ing to show up, you can ac­com­plish it."

Em­manuel's vic­to­ry was par­tic­u­lar­ly sweet as she ad­mit­ted the win on­ly hit her when her name was called. "From the very be­gin­ning, peo­ple kept say­ing, 'You got this!' but I wasn't so sure. Every­one brought their A-game, and the en­er­gy was high. So when they ac­tu­al­ly said my name, I was like, 'Oh my God... they were right. I did do it.'"

Sec­ond-year suc­cess for Mr Car­iFin

Charles's path to vic­to­ry show­cased the pow­er of per­sis­tence and im­prove­ment. In just his sec­ond year of Car­iFin par­tic­i­pa­tion, the Min­istry of Fi­nance em­ploy­ee trans­formed from a con­fi­dent new­com­er to the ul­ti­mate cham­pi­on.

"It feels amaz­ing! I'm so ex­cit­ed for my­self. I worked re­al­ly hard, and I'm grate­ful that all of it paid off. Be­com­ing Mr Car­iFin is tru­ly a dream come true," Charles said af­ter re­ceiv­ing his ti­tle.

Re­flect­ing on his growth, Charles not­ed: "That first year, I think I didn't push my­self as much. But af­ter see­ing what the oth­er guys brought to the ta­ble, I thought, 'Yeah, I can do bet­ter than that.' I sat down with a nice smile and told my­self it's time to step up—and I did."

High­ly-com­pet­i­tive field across mul­ti­ple events

The 2025 com­pe­ti­tion fea­tured in­tense bat­tles across mul­ti­ple cat­e­gories, with both win­ners ex­celling in var­i­ous dis­ci­plines.

Ms Car­iFin Fit­ness Pageant Re­sults: Em­manuel dom­i­nat­ed with 174.27 points, fol­lowed by Rober­ta Ditzen (Sagi­cor) with 153.23 points and Alana Ra­jah (Cen­tral Bank) with 153.00 points.

Mr Car­iFin Fit­ness Chal­lenge Re­sults: Charles (Min­istry of Fi­nance) se­cured vic­to­ry with 164.10 points, ahead of Christo­pher Ser­rant (UTC) with 153.24 points, and Tes­fa Bil­ly (Sco­tia­bank) with 150.37 points.

The com­pe­ti­tion in­clud­ed run­ning events for both cat­e­gories, with fe­male con­tes­tants show­cas­ing three-minute dance rou­tines and aer­o­bics, while male con­tes­tants demon­strat­ed their strength in cal­lis­then­ics chal­lenges and speed in the 100 me­tres. Both com­pe­ti­tions fea­tured Q&A seg­ments and pre­sen­ta­tion com­po­nents, with Charles high­light­ing the pre-Fam­i­ly Day aer­o­bics com­pe­ti­tion—where he placed sec­ond—as his most ex­cit­ing event: "The en­er­gy was un­re­al—so much at­ten­tion and ex­cite­ment. Every­one want­ed to see it. It was su­per com­pet­i­tive and fun."

Com­mu­ni­ty im­pact and fu­ture vi­sion

Both win­ners em­pha­sized their com­mit­ment to in­spir­ing oth­ers with­in the fi­nan­cial com­mu­ni­ty and be­yond.

Em­manuel, who plans to use her plat­form to pro­mote in­clu­siv­i­ty, stat­ed: "My biggest hope is that this in­spires peo­ple to step out­side their com­fort zones. Like I said, I'm usu­al­ly be­hind the scenes—and now I've stepped in front of the lens. I want peo­ple to see that this space is in­clu­sive and di­verse. If I can do it, you can do it too."

Charles has al­ready set his sights on men­tor­ing fu­ture par­tic­i­pants: "Now that I'm Mr Car­iFin and rep­re­sent­ing the Min­istry of Fi­nance, peo­ple will see me and feel in­spired—like, 'If he can do it, so can I.' Next year, I'm al­ready plan­ning to men­tor some­one and help guide him to win the ti­tle too."

About Car­iFin

The Car­iFin Games, es­tab­lished in 1992, has been cel­e­brat­ing fit­ness ex­cel­lence in T&T's fi­nan­cial sec­tor for 33 years, mak­ing it one of the longest-run­ning cor­po­rate well­ness ini­tia­tives in the Caribbean. The Ms Car­iFin Fit­ness Pageant was added in 2004, while the Mr Car­iFin Fit­ness Chal­lenge launched in 2022. The event pro­motes the core val­ues of fun, fit­ness, and friend­ship while fos­ter­ing ca­ma­raderie across fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tions.

Par­tic­i­pat­ing in­sti­tu­tions in­clud­ed the Min­istry of Fi­nance, UTC, Cen­tral Bank, Sco­tia­bank, First Cit­i­zens Bank, Sagi­cor and Mort­gage Bank.