JAMAICA’s dragon boat racers held their first training session in tranquil Bahamian waters yesterday, preparing for the Bahamas International Dragon Boat Festival this weekend, but forecasts predict heavy thunderstorms, tomorrow through Monday, with winds at nine miles per hour.

Helmsman Neil Yap Sam, vice-president of the Jamaica Dragon Boat Federation, who had travelled to The Bahamas ahead of the main team, which departed Jamaica yesterday, had forewarned of possibly rough seas.

“Some of the races will take place at the roughest time of the day but there are times when it is calmer,” Yap Sam posted in the team’s WhatsApp group last Saturday, adding “It’s 8:17 am. Look at the water already.”

Jamaica’s two teams entered for the open and mixed event have settled in, hitting the beach for training late afternoon after lunch.

A boat captains’ meeting is scheduled for 6:30 pm today at which the press, local and international, will formally meet team leaders ahead of the weekend’s races.

Jamaicans were elated to see their countrymen and women smartly attired in national colours, drawing admiration from airport to hotel and being complimented by other competing teams.

Having entered the open and mixed-team 200-metre events, Jamaica will field 17 competitors — 13 male and four female — including the Russell trio, matriarch Chue-Ping Wong Russell joined by daughters Danielle and Cassandra.

Denise Romero-Williams is the other female competitor for the Jason McKay-captained squad event, which starts its campaign tomorrow in open and mixed races with Gregory Forsyth as the team’s navigator.

Romero-Williams and the Russells will combine with Akino Lindsay, Richard Stone, Sharic Bowen, Rushaine Tyrell, Oshane Wilson, Leighton Scott and Arthur Barrows for mixed-team action at the festival.

Jamaica will have the international experience of Raúl S Fernández-Calienes, a dragon boat racer since age eight. Claiming Jamaica and Cuban parentage, Fernández-Calienes has raced in Florida, Alabama, Puerto Rico, The Bahamas, and Jamaica

He won two silver medals at the Pan American Club Crew Championships, at age 12, in Panama. Fernández-Calienes also competed among adults, representing the SACA Golden Dragons.

At age 14, he was selected for the United States’ national dragon boat team, junior division, and travelled to Brandenburg, Germany, where he represented the USA at the World Dragon Boat Racing Championships, winning six medals in both open and mixed junior divisions.

The Bahamas Chinese community is expected to attend the fourth staging of the event, which has attracted competitors from North America and the Caribbean. Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis is also expected to attend the festival at Goodman’s Bay.