Thursday 13 August 2015

Montrealers Nic and Sabrina end their run on The Amazing Race Canada

The Montreal presence on CTV’s The Amazing Race Canada is over after   Nic La Monaca from Anjou and  Lachine’s Sabrina Mercuri became the fifth team eliminated.  

The Montreal-based couple were in “jeopardy” early in the leg, struggling at the crime scene Detour, before their race took a turn for the worse when Nic was last to complete the CPR Road Block. In the end, Nic and Sabrina were the last team to reach the Pit Stop at Bell Park in Sudbury where they were greeted by host Jon Montgomery and eliminated from the race. 

“I’m not disappointed…you always think of me before you think of you, and I love you for that,” said Sabrina about her relationship with Nic.

“The bond that we have is never going to be broken,” added a heartfelt Nic, a graduate of the English Montreal School Board's Lester B. Pearson High School Sports Études Program.

Despite a 10 year age difference – Nick is 22 and Sabrina 32 – this looks like one rock solid couple. If anything can test a relationship it is this type of experience.

I spoke to Nic and Sabrina today. They joined me by telephone from Toronto where they are doing the media rounds. “Testing our relationship was certainly not the reason to do the show,” said Nic. “We know our boundaries. If anything this validated our love for each other.”

Because the show will still be airing for several weeks, there is a lot the couple did not want to say. “Life will kind of get back to normal,” said Sabrina. “While we cannot talk too much, this experience was very stressful and difficult. Nobody can ever imagine. You cannot understand by just watching the show for one hour.”

Having interview Montreal physicians Brett and Holly, first year contestants, I know all of the intimate details of what the contestants go through. For starters they cannot tell anyone in their family where they are nor communicate with them during the shoot.  When they check into hotels, the phones, TVs and radios are disconnected. No newspapers are permitted. Just some magazines. A guard stands outside the room and they do not mingle with their competitors when filming is not taking place.

Nic and Sabrina.
Nic is now busy coaching youth soccer for Les Étoiles de L’Est in Laval. He also returns to class full-time in September at Concordia, where he is studying political science. Sabrina works in human resources for an engineering company.

During the show Nic actually had one challenge that involved soccer. Competitors had to get the ball in the net while blindfolded. He was unable to complete the task and the couple actually took a two hour penalty to skip the experience. That choice almost got them eliminated two weeks earlier. “That was a tough one,” said Nic. “The thing is that challenge ended up not being about skill, but rather communications.”

One of the interesting developments of course when you are on a show seen by millions of Canadians each week is the recognition factor. “We do get recognized,” said Sabrina. “It is quite flattering.”

The most recent  episode will encore this Saturday, August 15 at 8 p.m. ET/PT and Sunday, August 16 at 5 p.m. ET/PT on CTV and CTV GO – and is also now available on demand at CTV GO. All-new episodes of THE AMAZING RACE CANADA air Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV and CTV GO. Episodes 1–5 are also now streaming on CraveTV™, with new episodes available a week after the broadcast premiere. Previous seasons are also now streaming on CraveTV.


On the next episode (Wednesday, August 19 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV and CTV GO), teams race to Canada’s heartland, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where the Road Block has some teams bouncing ahead of the pack, and others falling behind. Tensions drive Brian and Cynthia to the edge, and at the Detour, some teams are spinning in circles, while others jump through hoops to stay in the race.

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