After a grueling 2-day event testing the fitness of all the participants at all levels, Toa Games 2022 concluded with the co-owner of Crossfit Fatu Toa and the Games Coordinator, Brendan Sefo dubbing this year's season the biggest since its inception in 2015. 

In its seventh season, the Toa Games was founded and initiated by the Crossfit Fatu Toa Gym with the purpose of promoting exercise, fitness and healthy living through a competition with other local gyms.

It is held every year – not only to celebrate the anniversary when Crossfit Fatu Toa Gym opened its doors to the public for the first time in 2015 – but also to find out who is the fittest “team-of-four” in Samoa through a set of events that test various aspects of fitness such as strength, muscular endurance, aerobic capacity, speed and much more.

This year the competition attracted a total of 27 teams including three teams from American Samoa.

In an interview with the Sunday Samoan, Mr. Sefo said that they come up with new tests every year to challenge the fitness ability of the participants. 

"The aim every year is to find tests that helps push the athletes to a place that they've never done before and to help structure their trainings towards this event," he said. 

"We want to test them in a variety of ways they wouldn't usually do in a gym setting and find strength in them that they did not know they had. 

"This year is biggest ever, we have 27 teams from the 24 we had last year and we are expecting more teams next year especially with borders opening."

On the first day of the competition, the participant's fitness and aerobic capacities were challenged with a lot of running and other activities on the tracks at the Apia Park stadium. The finale of the competition was held at the Crossfit Fatutoa. 

Mr. Sefo said he was pleased to again have teams from the territory participating in the Toa Games.

"I really enjoy it when the Pago teams come over. It's been a while since they've been able to travel because of COVID. 

"But it's really great to see them again, all three teams, they always bring so much energy and enthusiasm to the Toa and we love to have them every year. 

"We're already getting requests and bookings for next year so it looks like next year it's going to be even bigger and we're going to find more variety of tests to throw at them."

The Team Captain for FunFit American Samoa, Kennedy Nofoagatoto'a who joined the Toa Games for the first time, was ecstatic to be part of this year's competition. 

"Since COVID we haven't been here for a while so it's really good to be back in the Toa Games," Mr. Nofoagatoto'a told this newspaper. 

"This is my first time competing but Funfit has been competing for a while. We're excited to make a difference and hopefully we can inspire them to come over for our FunFit games happening soon."

Another competitor, Luaao Wasko, from Team Yolo from American Samoa shared similar sentiments.  

"I'm very excited to be here and test my ability to compete with the young ones and people of my age," she said.

Ms Wasko also used the opportunity to encourage people to join the competition to test their abilities, especially if they're constantly training and exercising throughout the year. 

The youngest competitor in this year's competition, Jessiemina Silva Fong emphasised that despite her age and having to compete with people who are a lot older than her, she used the opportunity to challenge her strength and ability. 

Ms. Fond also used the opportunity to send a simple for everyone, saying: "Just do what you love to do and pursue your dreams."

 Toa 2022 Champions Results: for the Scaled category, the Underdogs team reigned supreme taking away first place, Xtreme Hustle and Muscles came second while Kilogainz finished in third place. 

As for the RX category, Black Mamba Alpha won first place, Small Fish came second and Team Ultra placed third in the rankings.