Fathers’ death inspires superwoman
feat for cancer research
Zakia Haywood participates in a half-marathon race earlier this year.
Zakia Haywood
Caribbean Life, NOVEMBER 1-7, 2019 51
BCA President Conde Riley.
Photo by George Alleyne
B’dos rejects
loss-making
cricket
By George Alleyne
In a clear sign that the Barbados
Cricket Association (BCA) is focussing
on profitability and money owed to it,
the island’s cricket authority has rejected
an offer from Cricket West Indies to
host the loss-making ‘A’ section of the
coming Super 50 competition.
The Super 50 is the region’s annual
one-day competition that begins Nov. 6
and runs for approximately three weeks
ending with the final on Dec. 1. The
tournament is divided into groups ‘A’
and ‘B’ involving nine teams including
sides from the United States and
Canada.
Contests within Group ‘B’ will be
televised on US sports channel, ESPN,
and guarantees revenue to the host
country.
Barbados was originally offered
the opportunity to host the Group ‘B’
matches and the final, but because that
island’s independence day falls on Nov.
30, BCA requested time to clarify that
whether government will be holding a
parade and rally at the cricket venue,
Kensington Oval.
But reports coming out of Barbados
TODAY newspaper Thursday said that
by the time BCA verified there will be
no clash as the rally will be held elsewhere,
CWI had already awarded hosting
of Group ‘B’ matches to Trinidad
and Tobago.
“They … offered us Zone A,” BCA
president Conde Riley told Barbados
TODAY, and added, “the BCA’s Board
held an emergency meeting and based
on the amount of money owed to us
by Cricket West Indies, we concluded
that hosting Zone ‘A’ would have no
economic value for us because if you
are owned over a million dollars (Bar$1
= .50 cents US) and you host Zone ‘A’
where there will be no economic impact
to the country, we will be spending two
million dollars to host that zone and the
country will be getting nothing”.
Riley said that the Barbados leg of
the lucrative England tour earlier this
year saw most of the money going to
CWI, which continues to owe Barbados
considerable sums.
By Rawle Titus
A Bronx woman, whose parents are
Trinidadian, has embarked on a herculean
feat of running three marathons
in three weeks, to raise funds for cancer
research and treatment, following the
death of her father.
Zakia Haywood, 44, is running three
high profile long distances races, including
the popular NYC Marathon to raise
10,000 dollars for the Leukemia & Lymphoma
Society.
Brooklyn born Haywood has already
defied a grueling terrain and persistent
rain to complete her first race, the 2019
Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) 50k last
Sunday.
Now, the mother of three is down to
compete in the New York City Marathon
on Sunday Nov. 3, before again testing
her endurance a few days later when she
competes in the New York Road Runners
(NYRR) 60K on Nov. 17.
All three races are part of what she has
branded The Project Courage Challenge,
inspired by the death of her father to pancreatic
cancer five years ago.
“Everyone says in life you should have
a purpose and motive in order to create
movement and change. I think one of the
gifts I have to connect to people is running,
“said Haywood, who revealed that
so far, about 3000 dollars of the targeted
10,000 have been raised for the project
including donations to a fund-raising
page on social media.
“In order to bring awareness and to
help other families not go through what
I have gone through, you basically have
to raise money. We have a big campaign
going on to try and raise as much as we
can.”
Haywood ran last Sunday’s Marine
Corps ultra-Marathon in memory of her
father Godfrey Feracho, who died seconds
after she and her kids rushed into his
room at the Mt. Hope Hospital in Trinidad
after a flight from New York.
“I had to book a flight to get there.
Once I got there he passed away at
that moment. It was just literally a few
moments, “recalled Haywood, whose kids
are 15,12 and six.
“So it was almost like he was waiting
for us to get there to just look at us and
then he passed away.”
It is the first time Haywood is competing
in marathons in the twilight of an
athletics career which dates back to high
school and college but went into a temporary
hiatus after graduation.
Middle distance events such as the 400
metres, 800 metres and the mile were
her favorites during her time at John Jay
High School in Brooklyn and Colgate
University.
In recent years, Zee as she is affectionately
called, has also been competing in
5k and 10k races across boroughs including
Brooklyn, Manhattan and Bronx.
“He (Dad) always told me about courage.
So I said I will do a three-part challenge
because he heard the three words
that devastated his life forever when the
doctor told him…’you have cancer’…said
the five feet nine inch Haywood, as she
reminisced on how her father inspired
her cancer awareness and fund raising
campaign.
“So, I picked three events that were
about having courage… and that was
doing three events that I have never done
before”.
Haywood has been selected to represent
Trinidad and Tobago as the flag
bearer at the NYC Marathon Opening
Ceremonies and Parade of Nations on
Friday November 1, ahead of the 26.2-
mile race on Sunday which takes runners
, from all over the world including the
Caribbean, thorough all five boroughs.
Since high school she has been a volunteer
at the NYC marathon but now
in her debut year she will be running
alongside her coach, Hernan Lou Montes,
who is competing in the event for the
28th year.
The NYC Marathon, coming on the
heels of the Marine Corp 50K, is her
second major effort of her fund raising
project and is dedicated to five people
described as ‘honored heroes.’
They include King Singh, a six-yearold
Queens resident who was diagnosed
with acute lymphocytic leukemia, blood
cancer when he was two and 59 year
old Real-estate broker Elizabeth Mark
who discovered she had breast cancer
while preparing for the NYC Marathon
in August.
The other three are a breast cancer
survivor, a friend who was recently diagnosed
with pancreatic cancer and a close
friend who succumbed to metastatic
brain cancer.
“I am not doing it for myself. I am
doing this for my dad,” Haywood told
Caribbean Life, shortly after taking part
in the MCM last Sunday.
“When I finished that race and I got
that medal from the Marine and he said
job well done. I said I just knew my dad
was smiling on me.”
Zakia Haywood participates in the
City Challenge Obstacle Race.