Mixed team to represent Jamaica at Dragon Boat Festival in Bahamas

JAMAICA will be represented at the August 30-31 Bahamas International Dragon Boat Festival at Goodman’s Bay, Nassau, by a McKay Security-sponsored mixed team, comprising mainly martial artists from the combined martial arts team.

Mixed-team winners at June’s inaugural Jamaica Dragon Boat Festival, the team has been in training at Port Royal for the Bahamas International, which is expected to draw participation from teams across the Caribbean and North America, including a high-school team from Trinidad and Tobago and competitors from Oregon in the United States.

Jamaica had its first taste of dragon-boat racing in 2002, making the semi-finals of the Jakarta Dragon Boat competition in Thailand.

However, the Bahamas International marks the first competition in which Jamaica will participate under the banner of the Jamaica Dragon Boat Federation.

Crossing sporting lines, the dragon-boat team representing Jamaica has in its line-up seven International Sport Kick-Boxing Association’s Amateur Members Association (ISKA AMA) World Championship gold medallists, including three current world champions - Akino Lindsay, Richard Stone and Akeem Lawrence - captained by former fighter Jason McKay, one of the most recognisable faces in Jamaica’s martial-arts community.

The team will also include two footballers from the St Catherine Football Association’s leagues. Oshane Wilson, a powerlifter and police officer, joins the team alongside navigator Gregory Forsythe. Neil Yap Sam, vice-president of the Jamaica Dragon Boat Federation, has been named helmsman of the tailored squad.

Raul Fernandez-Calienes, a dragon-boat junior world gold medallist of Jamaican-Cuban parentage, who represented the United States at the Junior World Games, adds international experience to the squad for Jamaica’s historic international debut, having also officiated at the July 14-20 World Dragon Boat Racing Championships in Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany.

All members of the travelling squad, bar one, were members of the McKay Security team that won mixed-team gold. Wilson was added to replace weightlifter Aaron March, who had represented McKay Security at the national event in June.

McKay, whose firm has sponsored multiple sporting disciplines, said he was introduced to dragon-boat racing by his cousin, Geraldine Delvallie Callientes, who officiates in the sport, and his friend, Yap Sam, who invited him to participate.

“My cousin, Gerry, and friend, Neil, had invited me to get involved by fielding a team. I used Jamaica’s combined martial arts team members, who I manage, mixed with footballers, with whom I am also involved, as well as a former world taekwondo medallist.

“We started training. At the June event, we won several heats and the mixed-team gold. I afterwards expressed an interest to compete at the Bahamas International,” McKay explained.

“When I assembled the McKay Security squad, I knew I had to use athletes from other sports. You need strength and stamina, mixed in with the ability to coordinate with others in unison, so the martial arts team members were a natural choice.”

The make-up of the squad gives national caps in a second sport to six current or former members of the combined martial arts team.

For McKay, participating in the Bahamas Dragon Boat Festival will put him on hallowed ground of representing Jamaica in three separate sports, having donned national colours in rugby in the 1980s and martial arts from 1991 to 2017, returning to international sports for the first time since being seriously injured in 2021.

The squad and background are as follows: Captain Jason McKay - former US Open Martial Arts world gold medallist; Vice-captain Arthur Barrows - former US Open Martial Arts World gold medallist; Richard Stone - current ISKA Martial Arts world champion; Akino Lindsay - current ISKA Martial Arts world champion; Akeem Lawrence - current ISKA Martial Arts world champion; Delano Francis - former ITF World Cup Martial Arts junior world champion; Sharic Bowen - US Open Martial Arts gold medallist; Leighton Scott - footballer; Roshane Tyrell - footballer; Gregory Forsythe - naval navigator; Oshane Wilson - powerlifter; Raul Fernandez-Calienes - Dragon Boat Junior world gold medallIst; Neil Yap Sam - helmsman.