Timmins pair competing in Underwater Rugby World Championships

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Alex Gervais and Isabelle Bernard of Timmins have simply returned from competing on the Underwater Rugby World Championships with Workforce Canada on the Claude Robillard Sports activities Centre in Montreal.

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They’re a pair in life as properly, a pair who met by way of buddies and share a love of the dynamic contact sport, a lot so, they began the Timmins Underwater Rugby Membership in 2018.

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Now, Timmins is certainly one of solely 4 underwater rugby groups throughout Canada, the others being in Toronto, Montreal and Brantford.

The sport was invented in Germany in 1961. Proponents say it’s the one recreation the place you’ll be able to throw the ball in any path.

The contact sport is performed at a depth of three.5 to 5 metres with two groups of six aiming to attain by placing a saltwater-filled ball in a metal purpose basket.

There have been 10 groups competing on the July 7-15 championships, although there are virtually twice as many groups worldwide. It’s a very fashionable sport in Europe, the place virtually each nation has a group, Bernard mentioned, including {that a} Vancouver group is within the works.

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This yr, Bernard competed on the ladies’s group which completed in tenth place and Gervais on the boys’s group that completed in ninth place.

“Contemplating Canada is a comparatively new nation to the game, as we’ve solely been taking part in since 2002, I’m proud of our outcomes,” Bernard mentioned. She’s often a ahead, however performed as a goalie on the championships, a place she’s been coaching for through the previous two years.

“I believe I did the most effective as I may, we had new women as in comparison with 2019. It was very nice to construct teamwork,” Bernard mentioned. Bernard certified for the 2019 World Championships in Austria as a part of the primary Canadian girls’s group to compete in that occasion. The group positioned second to final out of 14 groups that yr.

Columbia positioned first in each the boys’s and girls’s groups this yr.

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“Alex went to Columbia for 3 weeks to coach and he mentioned it’s virtually like a life-style there, there’s rugby each day, they play 4 to 5 occasions per week for two-hour classes,” mentioned Bernard.

Bernard attributes Columbia’s gold-winning efficiency this yr to their masterful management of the ball.

Underwater rugby is one sport the place the goalie will get to take assaults mendacity down, defending the purpose basket by mendacity on high of it.

“There’s a defender in entrance of the web and a goalie on high of the web,” Bernard mentioned. “As a goalie you need to maintain your butt and legs away from the gamers, as a result of it’s very easy to seize you and carry you up. It actually assessments your goalie abilities to see how you employ your arms and legs to defend the web.”

Gamers put on a diving masks, fins, a snorkel, and water polo cap and want to have the ability to maintain their breath for 15 to 45 seconds, with a mean of seven to 10 seconds, whereas shifting. Gamers are regularly changing one another, with three respiratory and three underwater within the fast-paced recreation.

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“Generally the defenders will seize your hips to maintain you on the web,” mentioned Bernard, including that security codes, like pinching, are used to point when a participant is at their most breath holding, or apnea.

Gamers work on their apnea by holding their breath in intervals throughout cardio coaching on elliptical machines and stationary bikes.

“We’d maintain our breath for 10 to 12 seconds, take three breaths, then maintain once more for a minute after which relaxation for a minute, to assist us construct apnea,” mentioned Bernard.

Bernard loves the cardio and endurance of the game. “You at all times impress your self along with your apnea if you’re under and somebody’s making an attempt to attain, or when you’re swimming throughout and making an attempt to attain,” she mentioned.

Bernard and Gervais additionally share the identical skilled curiosity in nursing. Gervais is a psychological well being nurse on the Timmins and District Hospital, and Bernard simply graduated from nursing and is about to start a brand new job at Plan A nursing company.

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The couple obtained into the sport as a result of they beloved rugby as a spectator sport, however had been lively in weightlifting and soccer. After they found underwater rugby, it was an ideal mixture of mobility and energy.

On Wednesday night time on the Archie Dillon Sportsplex pool, Gervais and Bernard weren’t resting on their fins, however already working towards for the Boston Underwater Rugby match Sept. 23 to 24.

The Timmins Underwater Rugby Membership practise Wednesdays from 8 p.m. to 9:15 p.m. on the Archie Dillon Sportsplex Pool. Every follow is $5, and the primary one is free. New members are welcome any time. Contact Isabelle Gervais at 705-266-5234 for extra info.

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