AN ardent movie fan as much as he is a sportsman, Jason McKay must have taken rather seriously Captain James T Kirk’s opening monologue from Star Trek, “Your ongoing mission: Explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and civilizations, and boldly go where no one has gone before.”

Jamaica’s national record of 1:01.82 minutes, set in the mixed 200m final of the fifth annual Bahamas International Dragon Boat Festival, held at Goodman’s Bay, Nassau, The Bahamas, last weekend, was yet another realm that McKay made possible, 11 months after first putting together a team on which he competed at the inaugural Jamaica Dragon Boat Festival, held May 31-June 1, 2025.

“I believe in walking the talk,” said McKay, who participated in Jamaica’s first heat of the 500-metre open in The Bahamas.

“After McKay Security’s mixed team won the 200m at Jamaica’s first festival last year, we strategically combined a squad of personnel with dragon boat experience, joined by athletes from football, power-lifting and martial arts, resulting in a historic bronze medal in the mixed 200m at The Bahamas festival,” McKay said.

“Success in sports is about strategy and long-term planning, which I have been doing from decades ago, using myself as a guinea pig at martial arts tournaments, such as the annual United States Open and European International Sports Kickboxing Association’s Amateur Members Association (ISKA AMA) World Championships, which Jamaicans such as Akino Lindsay and Richard Stone are now dominating.”

McKay has the rare distinction of having represented Jamaica as an athlete in three separate sporting disciplines: rugby, martial arts and dragon boat racing.

In addition to being an athlete, McKay has also excelled as a martial arts coach and manager, nurturing talents such as Jamaica’s first taekwondo Olympian, Kenneth Edwards; ITF taekwondo Pan-Am gold medallist Nicholas Dusard; as well as kickboxing champions Sheckema Cunningham, Subrina Richards, Stone, and Lindsay, ISKA AMA’s most decorated fighter.

Pointing out that Jamaica is not short on young, athletic talent that can be “grown, trained and managed to beat the world”, McKay’s love for football recently resulted in $10.6 million in sponsorship for the St Mary, Kingston and St Andrew, and St Thomas football associations, aimed at reviving youth football leagues throughout the country.

“It is the same model that I used to form Jamaica’s combined martial arts team, which went unbeaten in 51 matches on world tours, primarily Asia, including China, Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam, a squad constantly replenished by inviting fighters from all martial arts schools locally as well as those transitioning from the McKay Security Jamaica Taekwondo High School League,” he said.

“In dragon boat racing, we have everything we need. We have athletes, the world’s seventh-largest natural harbour in which to train, boats provided by the Chinese Benevolent Association and good year-round weather.”

Eyeing Jamaica’s second Dragon Boat Festival, on June 13 and 14, McKay is confident that both mixed and open teams could set new national records, aiming to ‘boldly go where no one (Jamaican) has gone before’ — the International Dragon Boat Federation’s Club Crew World Championships, from August 29 to September 6.