CHUE Ping Wong Russell, matriarch of the Russell clan, said Jamaica’s bronze medal won in the 200-metre Major Mixed final at the fourth Bahamas Chinese International Dragon Boat Festival, August 30-31, was not only a victory for the island but also the family.

Chue-Ping and her daughters, Danielle and Cassandra, joined by Captain Denise Romero-Williams, were the four female members of the mixed team, which won Jamaica’s historic bronze against the odds, being first-time participants.

“We have always done everything together as a family. It was even more exhilarating that I was paddling right beside one of my daughters, Danielle, doing something that we love,” said Chue Ping, a water-sport enthusiast, who was at first a dragon-boat racing mom, dropping off and picking up her children, later accepting an invitation to try the sport.

Making their foray into competitive dragon boat racing at the inaugural Jamaica Dragon Boat Festival at Port Royal, May 30-June 1, the Russells, Chue Ping, Danielle and Cassandra, represented Hydra Ja in the mixed event, ironically beaten by McKay Security, who sponsored Jamaica’s team to Bahamas.

“It’s like we were destined,” said Chue Ping.

Hydra Ja’s motto was ‘Out of many, one people’, Jamaica’s motto, because the team had different ethnicities.

“We were at training after that and a boat needed more bodies, the McKay people said, “jump in”, suddenly we were representing Jamaica. Denise fitted right in with us,” she said.

However, travelling into the unknown in The Bahamas was diving into the proverbial deep end of the pool for the Russells.

“We didn’t know what we were up against. All we knew was that there were many teams and we, Jamaica, were newbies. We were given the impression that we didn’t stand a chance against people practising for four, five years,” Chue Ping said.

However, after Jamaica’s impressive first-round time of 1:04.79, though finishing third of three teams, Chue Ping said she knew they were onto something special.

“After the first heat, we realised, ‘Hey, we can do this. They only beat us by two seconds,’ ” she recounted.

“When we won the second race, it was exhilarating. I was on top of the moon. Even then, I didn’t know we would have medalled in the final.”

Cassandra, 18, whose sister, Danielle, 21, also drummed for Jamaica’s open team, was also ecstatic to have won a medal with her mother and sibling.

“At high school I was more into badminton and swimming, but now all my focus is on dragon-boating. If you had asked me months before whether I would have been in The Bahamas representing Jamaica, I would have never thought about it, more so my entire family being a part of the experience.”

Chue Ping is elated that Jamaica is considering a bigger squad of three teams for next year’s festival, an all-female, mixed and open team.

“I am all for it. Since it’s a new sport, let’s go and do well. We can enter other distances as well. We shouldn’t limit ourselves to the 200-metre. We can actually win more than three medals. The sky’s the limit. What we did showed me we can do better,” she said.