The name Jamida Webster, a young cyclist and basketball player who met a violent death twelve years ago, continues to resonate in the growing bicycle racing sport in Anguilla.
Sunday, April 26, 2015, was the eighth year now that the Jamida Memorial Cycling Competition has been organised in her memory; and it is twelve years since she was killed by someone while cycling alone in the Mount Fortune area just before her sixteenth birthday. She would have been 28 on Wednesday, April 25.
Three groups of cyclists, numbering 70, from across Anguilla, as well as from neighbouring St. Martin/St. Maarten, participated in the event. There was also a mini boat race, added this year, as an enhancement of the cycling competition.
The race was supervised by the Anguilla Cycling Association represented by Derek Carty, and with the involvement of the Government’s Sports Department. Acting Director Sports, Rollins Richardson, spoke about the athletic prowess of the late comprehensive school student whom he said was a fine example to other students in the school’s sport day events.
Jamida’s parents, Kent Webster and Iris Hughes, were both at the annual cycle race. Webster said he was continuing to struggle to deal with the memory of their daughter and to come to terms with her murder twelve years ago. He was nevertheless comforted by the many persons who usually attend and participate in the annual memorial race, and was grateful for the financial contributions which a number of donors continue to make towards the event.
