On a cool Sunday night, deep in the jungle, right in the middle of IMAGO….4 teams battle for supremacy to earn the title of IMAGO Rainforest Challenge Champion. The Rainforest Challenge was organized as part of IMAGO’s celebration of Kaamatan in Sabah ( read more about the background and concept of this challenge in my previous pre event post here)

4 teams were selected from the top 6 best time weekly winners. And these team are lead by 4 celebrity sports fitness personality; namely Allen Solomon Chong, Alexis Akang, Kevin Andrew and Adreanna Joyce ( read their profile in my pre-event post here ). It was a battle between 2 martial arts stars and 2 fitness coach! All the Team Captain’s compression attire are Adidas sponsored by Grace One.

Each team needs to go through 5 obstacles in Rainforest Challenge. 1. Dangerous Steps.

2. Dangerous Vines. 3. Rolling Logs. 4. Spider Web. 5. Warrior Blow.

To identify their team members, each team needed a mark. Team leaders was given colour paint to paint ‘tattoo’ on their team members. Allen had loads of fun painting Naruto symbols on his teams’ faces. He even had one of his team members giving him an anchor ‘tattoo’ ala Popeye on his forearm! Adreanna’s team had orange coloured paint matching her Adidas outfit.

Face paint war!

Next up…what is a battle without a war cry? Azlan, the charismatic emcee ask each group to come up with their own version of war cry to rally their members spirit. Allen summons the ninja spirit by shouting Ninja, Ninja, Ninjassss! By the way his gym Alpha MMA logo has a Ninja on it.

Allen summoning his ninja power to psyche up his team

Team Kevin’s war cry was the most unique…” Biar patah tulang, jangan patah hati!” Which means let our bones break but not our hearts! That sounds romantic yet when shouted by these boys sounded like they are ready to go to war and break some bones!

After a few practice of the war cry, it’s off to the challenge. 1st up was Allen. Off to a very enthusiastic start but the 1st stage of Dangerous Steps proof its name as Allen got stuck on the last steps. But he managed to tackle the Dangerous Vine in fine form as he traverse the rope using the monkey crawl technique. The rolling logs proof to be the toughest obstacle. As there were crews there rolling the huge cylindrical logs against the direction of the participants. Participants that fell off the logs had to restart. It took Allen 3 attempts to complete this challengeg. It was a smooth crawl for him at the Spider Web as he turn on full ninja mode. Warrior Blow was easy with only 1 try to hit the target.

Next is Adreanna. She was careful at the Dangerous Steps and made through. At the Dangerous Vine, it was a smooth as she uses well controlled pace using the strength of the well-built upper body. But again the Rolling Logs was the culprit…faltered on the first and second attempt; especially on the middle log. For the 3rd attempt the crews stopped rolling and she made it through. At the Spider Web Adreanna tried twice to look for the best entrance. On 3rd try she crawled through. Warrior Blow does not look as easy as it seems, when your heart is pounding and your breathing is heavy it can affect your aim. She hit the target on the 4th blow.

3rd Team Captain was Kevin. He may not have the height but with wide stride Dangerous Steps was done. At Dangerous Vine, he started well but a slight misstep in the middle almost made him slipped but he manage to correct his steps instantly and complete the challenge. On to the ‘cursed’ Rolling Logs; With a swift leap he jump on the logs, fell on the middle logs but he did not fell off the logs, pull up quickly with his arms and crawl through! Spider Web was also a smooth crawl and end the Warrior low with one attempt and finished with 41 seconds, the best time among the team leader!

Last but not least, Alexis as the youngest team leader, with his grey camouflage Adidas compression attire, got through Dangerous Steps. In the middle of Dangerous Vine, stumbled in the middle, but used his strong arms to hold on and pull himself up and made through. The Rolling Logs is not an easy task. Alexis fell off twice. The middle logs was again the perpetrator. Made through on the 3rd run. Enter the Spider Web from the top left corner and exit to the Warrior Blow. Hit the target on the 3rd attempt and finished at the buzzer.

After the team Captain finished their run, it’s for the rest of the team members to go. It was all fun but challenging at the same time and these are the officials results:

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The Best Team – Team Adreanna
1. Adreanna Joyce (Captain)
2. Romie Jamros
3. Adwin Tokiong
4. Jefri
5. Brenny Bethluc Seibit
6. Eric

Second Prize – Team Kevin Andrew
1. Kevin Andrew (Captain)
2. Ben Sar
3. Mohd Hafiey
4. Addy Boye Medil
5. Sheila Rani
6. Admil Beno

Third Prize – Team Alexis Akang
1. Alexis Akang (Captain)
2. Kaisal
3. Rina
4. Alih
5. Darrel Isaac
6. Darrall

Forth Prize – Team Allen Chong
1. Allen Chong (Captain)
2. Zul
3. Odong
4. Bryanater
5. Dayang Nurazy
6. Hazeem

The Best Team was determined by the total amount of point from each team competing faceoff (shortest time) with each other in stage .The member including the captain completing the obstacles and the team with the most point win the best team. Whereas, the Ultimate Warrior was determined based on the participants that complete the obstacle course with the shortest time.

Romie from Team Andreanna was crowned The Imago Rainforest Challenge Ultimate Warrior 2016, with the fastest speed of 40 secs.

Romie is the Ultimate Warrior with the best time

The 2 main prizes which were The Best Team (Fastest team) and The Ultimate Warrior were given out by Imago Shopping Mall Management, represented by Mr. Shahrizan Madi, Personal Assistant to CEO of Asianpac Holdings Berhad, Dr. Raymond Yu Tat Loong.

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The prizes for The Best Team included Fitbit Flex fitness band,
Imago limited edition merchandise and voucher sponsored by tenants whereas The Ultimate Warrior got to bring home Samsung Galaxy Note 5.

A word of thanks to IMAGO mall for creating The Rainforest Challenge. I really hope to see more of this type of event in Sabah. It’s also encouraging to see our martial arts and fitness personality being given the exposure and in fact they themselves too are a drawing factor to the local crowds.

Kudos too to the IMAGO team that work hard to ensure all things went smooth.