An­ton Robin­son of First Cit­i­zens Bank com­plet­ed a his­toric per­fect sea­son Sun­day morn­ing, claim­ing the men’s 6-kilo­me­tre ti­tle at the 33rd Car­iFin Cross Coun­try Cham­pi­onship to cap an un­beat­en cam­paign across all four in­di­vid­ual dis­tance events.

The cham­pi­onship, which be­gan at ap­prox­i­mate­ly 7.30 am at Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain saw Robin­son’s win­ning time of 21 min­utes and 35 sec­onds over the chal­leng­ing course come near­ly three min­utes faster than de­fend­ing cham­pi­on Shay Gon­za­les’ 2024 mark, com­plet­ing his clean sweep of the One Lap Sa­van­nah, Green Mile, Chan­cel­lor Chal­lenge, and Cross Coun­try – the four pre­mier in­di­vid­ual com­pe­ti­tions in the Car­iFin Games.

“This one no, I just know I had to push through,” said Robin­son, who main­tained his tar­get pace of six min­utes per mile, through­out the de­mand­ing, 6K jour­ney that fea­tured the no­to­ri­ous “Hol­lows” sec­tion.

In the women’s 4K di­vi­sion, Cen­tral Bank’s (CBTT) Lo­ri­anne Ay­oung-Chee re­claimed her crown with a win­ning time of 21.20, re­turn­ing to the top af­ter fin­ish­ing sec­ond in 2024. Hav­ing been a pre­vi­ous win­ner of the Car­iFin Games Cross Coun­try fe­male race when it was held at Sevil­la Golf Course in Cou­va. The ex­pe­ri­enced com­peti­tor’s vic­to­ry demon­strat­ed the con­sis­ten­cy that has made her a peren­ni­al con­tender in Car­iFin’s pre­mier dis­tance event.

“I just try to run my own race and for­get every­thing else,” said Ay­oung-Chee, whose fo­cused ap­proach helped her se­cure the ti­tle. “Get­ting to the fin­ish line run­ning at my pace.”

The walk­ing di­vi­sions show­cased both ex­pe­ri­ence and fresh tal­ent. CBTT’s Bri­an Je­re­mie dom­i­nat­ed the men’s 2K in 19.26, se­cur­ing his third con­sec­u­tive walk­ing ti­tle to per­ma­nent­ly claim the pres­ti­gious Wayne Roberts Chal­lenge Tro­phy.

“Once you put in the work, you’ll reap the re­wards,” said Je­re­mie, re­flect­ing on his re­mark­able three-peat achieve­ment that makes him the per­ma­nent keep­er of the tro­phy named af­ter Car­iFin Games Co­or­di­na­tor Wayne Roberts.

Mean­while, Min­istry of Fi­nance’s (MOF) Jew­el Black­well cap­tured her first-ever cross coun­try walk­ing ti­tle in 21.22, adding to her ear­li­er Green Mile vic­to­ry to make it two wins in her break­through 2025 sea­son.

Sco­tia­bank cap­tured the Mixed Re­lay Cham­pi­onship in 21.24, edg­ing CBTT (21.47) with First Cit­i­zens third (23.00). It in­clud­ed four-per­son teams-two run­ners and two walk­ers who com­pet­ed in a 1K Run, a 500m walk, a 1K run and a 500m walk.

MOF’s Dami­an Joseph earned spe­cial recog­ni­tion, se­cur­ing third place in the men’s 6K (26.52) af­ter hav­ing com­pet­ed ear­li­er in the Stephan Run 5K – an im­pres­sive dou­ble-race per­for­mance that im­proved his 2024 time by 44 sec­onds.

“It was dif­fi­cult. I felt a lit­tle weary in the first race and thought maybe I should hold back for the sec­ond one. But God is good. I thank God and I’m so grate­ful,” said Joseph, re­flect­ing on his re­mark­able day of dou­ble com­pe­ti­tion. “Thank God for the strength to do both races.”

The cross coun­try com­pe­ti­tion with over­cast skies and pre­vi­ous ear­ly morn­ing show­ers at­tract­ed a lit­tle over 150 in­di­vid­ual ath­letes plus re­lay teams across sev­en par­tic­i­pat­ing in­sti­tu­tions: Cen­tral Bank, Min­istry of Fi­nance, Unit Trust Cor­po­ra­tion, Sco­tia­bank, Trinidad and To­ba­go Mort­gage Bank, Sagi­cor, and First Cit­i­zens.

The Games pro­mote well­ness, team­work, and in­ter-in­sti­tu­tion­al re­la­tion­ships while show­cas­ing the ath­let­ic tal­ents with­in the fi­nan­cial com­mu­ni­ty.

Top 5 re­sults

Men’s 6K

1 An­ton Robin­son (First Cit­i­zens) 21.35

2 Shay Gon­za­les (Sco­tia­bank) 26.17

3 Dami­an Joseph (MOF) 26.52

4 Jonathan Pierre (CBTT) 28.46

5 Ronald Sylvester (MOF) 28.58

Women’s 4K

1 Lo­ri­anne Ay­oungChee CBTT 21.20

2 Eliz­a­beth Alexan­der TTUTC 23.31

3 An­gel Pe­ruza (MOF) 25.05

4 Danielle De Gannes (MOF) 26.55

5 Karyn Stew­art (CBTT) 28.00

Men’s 2K walk­ing

1 Bri­an Je­re­mie (CBTT) 19.26

2 Andy Solomon (TTUTC) 20.50

3 Ker­ron James (Sco­tia­bank) 22.14

4 Farouk Ghany (MOF) 25.39

5 Jathan King (Sco­tia­bank) 26.00

Women’s 2k walk­ing

1 Jew­el Black­well (MOF) 21.22

2 Cherisse Pierre (Sagi­cor) 21.33

3 N’yasha Wa­ter­man (Sco­tia­bank) 21.51

4 Ir­va Phillip (Sco­tia­bank) 22.58

5 Chris­tine Grant (Min­istry of Fi­nance) 23.38

Mixed re­lay cham­pi­onship

1 Sco­tia­bank 21.24

2 Cen­tral Bank 21.47

3 First Cit­i­zens 23.00