Mangaia has once again demonstrated its athletic prowess by successfully defending the Cook Islands Games Open division trophy, solidifying its reputation as a force to be reckoned with in the sporting arena.

The champions of the three sports divisions were announced at the closing ceremony of the 2024 Cook Islands Games on Saturday evening at the National Stadium in Nikao.

Mitiaro claimed the Masters division trophy, while Aitutaki, who had been the front-runners in the Opens division, took home the Youth division trophy.

Team Mangaia officials revealed that tactical decision making was key to their success in reclaiming the coveted Opens trophy.

Shortly after the announcement, Annie Kauvarevai, the team leader, said she wasn’t really surprised when they were announced the winner.

“We are so happy to get the trophy back,” said Kauvarevai. “We updated our calculations of our points last night (Friday) and looked at the events we had leftover to do today (Saturday), and we estimated what points we and the other islands could achieve.”

She explained that they knew how many more points they needed on Saturday to lead the Opens division.

“We also knew which sport could bring those points in so we headed out that way to have a team talk with the athletes to make sure we got those points,” she said.

“Last night (Friday) from our own tallying we knew if we could get these points we will win definitely the trophy.

“It was a hard battle especially this (last) week because we are not strong in the team events but we are quite strong in the individual events.”

Kauvarevai expressed how proud she and the organisers of Team Mangaia were of their win since they only began preparing for the Games in July.

“We had a late start getting ready because we were all so busy with our 200-year Gospel celebrations,” she said.

“But with our good supporters, hard work and team work, we got there.”

Initially, Mangaia had around 600 registered athletes in their team, “but in actual fact we only had 432 athletes who actually played in these Games”.

Kauvarevai also credits two young youth members, Tashi Dean and Tave Tereapii, who helped put the team together.

Numangatini Tangitamaiti Ariki was thrilled to see Mangaia retain the trophy.

At the Games closing event on Saturday, he said: “We are returning our trophy back to Mangaia tonight, we have confirmed that the trophy is supposed to stay in Mangaia…”

Numangatini Tangitamaiti Ariki recognised the efforts of the athletes and supporters and praised God for their win.

“Thank you, I am proud of all athletes thank you maata especially to your parents and the whole community,” he said.

“And also thank you to those Mangaians who left the group to join the other teams, I invite you to come back to Mangaia in the next Games to rebuild again.”

Although Numangatini Tangitamaiti Ariki did not participate in any events, he was happy to be the main driver of the team.

“They need someone to drive them … that’s the secret to Mangaia winning,” he said with a grin.

The official medal tally was not released by the Cook Islands Sports and National Olympic Committee at the time the newspaper went to press last night.