'Never say die'...... St Jago hopes to honor fallen athlete who DIED in Trinidad & Tobago, Cavahn McKenzie with Champs win.....Quitters never win and winners never quit, that was part of his philosophy

Cavahn McKenzie’s schoolmates are
comforted by a teacher as they mourn his
untimely death during morning devotion at
the school yesterday.

INDOMITABILITY pushed through the heavy pall of grief that engulfed St Jago High School yesterday morning as Cavahn McKenzie's colleagues fixed their minds on winning the upcoming ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys' and Girls' Championships in tribute to his 'never say die attitude'.

"We want to do it (win champs) for him, we want to follow what he left off. Quitters never win and winners never quit, that was part of his philosophy and he was that sort of person," said coach Donald Hawthorne.

D'Jean Allwood, captain of the St Jago athletics team, agreed.

St Jago High School students grieve
 for their departed schoolmate Cavahn McKenzie
 yesterday during morning devotion.
 McKenzie died in Trinidad and Tobago on
 Saturday after competing in the North American,
Central American and Caribbean Athletics
 Association Cross-Country Championships.
 (PHOTO: LIONEL ROOKWOOD)

"We lost someone valuable to the team. We will use this as a reason to go forward and not backward," Allwood said as he led members of the team to an emotion-filled devotion where students and teachers wept openly for the promising athlete who died on Saturday in Trinidad and Tobago.

While the St Jago team were competing at the annual Gibson Relays inside the National Stadium in Kingston, McKenzie was representing Jamaica at the three-day North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletics Association Cross-Country Championships.

But 17-year-old McKenzie collapsed at the end of the six-kilometre event and died shortly after being rushed to Scarborough General Hospital. more