Episode 11
SEASON FINALE AVAILABLE
And the winning team is....
When they started out on The Amazing Race Canada: Heroes Edition, Season 6 champions Courtney Berglind and Adam Kovacs knew they had to do one thing: run their own race.
The engaged couple both told themselves they wouldn’t be paying attention to who was ahead or behind them. And it turns out that thinking served them well as they headed into Tuesday night’s finale where they miraculously beat Taylor Callens and his sister Courtney, and Dylan Elias and Kwame Osei as the race headed from Fredericton to their home province of Alberta.
“We’re as surprised as anyone else,” Adam said of their win.
The first responders from Calgary had never won a leg on this season of The Amazing Race Canada, but when it mattered most they managed to pull ahead of perceived front-runners, Taylor and Courtney.
Ahead of the Season 6 finale, we caught up with all three teams to find out how it all went down, the hardest challenge they faced and where it all went right (and wrong).
Adam and Courtney, it was a bit of a surprise that you won. You never won any legs and here you are; you’re the Season 6 champions of The Amazing Race Canada. How are you doing following the win?
Adam: We’re feeling overwhelmed.
Courtney B.: We are. It’s a classic underdog story and it feels pretty darn good. We knew we had it in us — it just took us awhile to get our race legs going.
Courtney, you just referred to the win as a classic underdog story. Is this the biggest come from behind win in Amazing Race Canada history?
Courtney B.: For us, getting to the finale was pretty incredible. But winning it all? We had to pinch ourselves and ask, ‘Did that just happen?’
Looking around, did you think you three would be the teams facing off in the finale?
Kwame: Personally, Dylan and I used to talk every night about who would be in the finale. For the longest while we thought it was going to be us and Leanne and Mar, Taylor and Courtney and Nancy and Mellisa. Those were the three other teams we thought that would be in there with us.
Taylor: After the first couple of legs we thought we had a chance, and we also thought Leanne and Mar, Nancy and Mellisa and Todd and Anna were strong. But stuff happens I guess.
Adam: From day one, we thought Dylan and Kwame would be in the finale for sure. We also thought Nancy and Mellisa were strong. Once Taylor and Courtney started getting strong we actually thought, ‘Maybe there’s no room for us.’
All three teams started the last leg evenly, so what was the turning point? Adam and Courtney, how did you raise your game and to the other teams, where did it all fall apart?
Courtney B.: For us, what was key in that last challenge was actually writing stuff down and keeping track of what we were doing. Keeping track of things is what helped us win.
Adam: You know, going in I remember thinking no matter what happens, I’m just grateful for making it this far and being able to do every single challenge. That gave me the freedom to loosen up.
Kwame: For us, there was one word that held us back. We fell behind and we couldn’t really catch up. But I’m proud we got back in the race.
Taylor: I think the biggest thing for us going into the final leg is we didn’t have a strategy. We didn’t have a plan. We were freewheeling it and we just lost track of things.
Courtney C.: I know back in Winnipeg, Taylor and I had a chat and he said I was getting too competitive and that was taking the fun out of it for him. So my strategy was to try and be less competitive and have more fun. But I think during that last challenge I was doing too much of that when maybe I should have been more competitive. I think about that moment almost every day.
What was the hardest challenge this year?
Courtney B.: I think for sure it was the paintball challenge. I had a really rough time. I almost had an anxiety attack. It was way more overwhelming than it looked on TV.
Courtney C.: Playing (the game) jai alai in Mexico. I never mastered that.
Dylan: I think for me personally it was the vogue challenge at El Convento Rico in Toronto. It wouldn’t have been a hard challenge, but it came during a long leg and we needed water.
Looking back, what was more important to winning the race: luck or skill?
Kwame: It’s both.
Adam: In the first episode, we watched air force pilots go out in the first round — that was super unexpected. So one little thing could make the biggest difference. A minute here, a minute there, taking the wrong cab, could play a huge factor. You can prepare as much as you want, but there are things you can’t control.
Taylor and Courtney were the perceived front-runners going into the finale. Dylan and Kwame, Adam and Courtney, did you think about forming an alliance to try and sideline them?
Kwame: Taylor and Courtney won many legs, but we also believed we could beat them. We didn’t need an alliance, but if the situation had come and we needed to, who knows?
Adam: Taylor and Courtney were unstoppable. So you do what you got to do, but I’m not sure they would have wanted to team up with us (laughs).
Biggest advice for future Amazing Race Canada contestants?
Courtney B.: Learn how to read a map.
Kwame: Focus on one challenge at a time. It’s not over until you meet (host) Jon (Montgomery) and he says, ‘You’ve been eliminated.’
Taylor: Trust your teammate. You picked them for a reason, and when you come to roadblocks, don’t second guess them unless you have to.
The Amazing Race Canada: Heroes Edition (Season 6) will be available in its entirety on CraveTV Sept. 14.
Twitter: @markhdaniell
mdaniell@postmedia.com
Victory in the sixth season of The Amazing Race Canada came down to a tale of two tchotchkes. RCMP siblings Taylor and Courtney Callens looked to be cruising to the win after taking a commanding lead (and winning five of the previous 10 legs), but a souvenir hunt set them back just enough for nurse Courtney Berglind and her firefighter fiancé Adam Kovacs to prevail.
Host Jon Montgomery in Banff National Park, where The Amazing Race Canada: Heroes Edition wrapped up its season. ( MARK O’NEILL / BELL MEDIA )
The Calgary couple had never won a previous leg and had narrowly missed elimination several times, but that’s the beauty of this competition: the team that dominates isn’t always the team that comes first and that keeps it interesting for viewers. In third place were friends and youth football coaches Dylan Elias and Kwame Osei from Fort McMurray. They fell behind in the first challenge and, despite making up ground in a physical Road Block, they weren’t able to pull ahead.
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All three teams began in Fredericton, N.B., and flew to Calgary where the first Road Block involved memorizing a 30-second voice recording of a weather forecast and reciting it word for word back to an air traffic controller in the Calgary airport tower. RCMP Courtney was the first to nail it, and she and Taylor took a breathtaking helicopter ride to the top of Mount Fable in Banff National Park for their next clue. Then they were off to Sunshine Village for a skijoring (skiing behind sled dogs) and sledding challenge that saw Taylor hit the edge of a man-made pond then do a full body flip face first into the snow in a clip worthy of America’s Funniest Home Videos. (He didn’t act hurt although he looked to have a dandy bruise or two on his face.) Courtney and Adam, and Dylan and Kwame made short work of the same course, but Taylor and Courtney still had a big lead as they hit the Banff National Park administration building for their next clue. The task? Cab over to 10 specially marked souvenir shops on Banff Ave. and find trinkets representing all 11 legs of the race — two items per leg — then display them in the correct order back at the administration building. Taylor and Courtney seemed to be killing it, but they were missing pieces from the P.E.I. and Banff legs, so back they went to the shops.
Meanwhile, Courtney and Adam, who kept notes while running every leg of race and just as carefully recorded each souvenir they gathered, were neck and neck with the B.C. siblings. But they made a potentially fatal mistake: choosing a zombie tchotchke (referencing a zombie paintball challenge in P.E.I.) to represent the Day of the Dead face-painting they did in Mexico.
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Taylor and Courtney, meanwhile, had to make a third shopping trip when a plane figurine they chose to represent the Banff leg was incorrect. Would Adam and Courtney realize their zombie error before Taylor and Courtney returned with a helicopter to replace the plane? (That doesn’t sound that interesting written like that but, trust me, it was tense.) The light bulb went off in the nick of time, and Adam and Courtney set off for the final pit stop at the Fairmont Banff Springs Golf Course. But there was still a chance for the sibs. Getting to the pit stop involved ziplining and then paddling down the Bow River. Taylor and Courtney made up enough time to get within sight of Adam’s and Courtney’s boat. It then came down to a foot race to the pit stop. And Courtney and Adam got lost, as they have so many times before. It turns out they were running around the 18-hole course asking directions instead of the Tunnel Mountain 9 course where host Jon Montgomery actually was. If you were like me, you were probably thinking that Courtney’s terrible sense of direction had once again put her and Adam behind. But nope, they got to Jon and the mat first, flanked by all of the eliminated teams cheering and screaming them on. (They sure were excited about seeing someone else win $250,000.) Besides the cash prize, Adam and Courtney scored two 2018 Chevrolet Traverse Redline cars and a trip for two around the world. “Ohmigod babe, we got it! I love you all,” Courtney told her former competitors. Adam thanked them for “every time you guys gave us a smile, high fives, hugs, every time we were in last place.” And as a consolation prize, the whole cast got invited to Adam’s and Courtney’s wedding in November. When Taylor and Courtney arrived minutes later they were gracious in their disappointment. “It would have been nice to bring home a No. 1, but I wouldn’t trade any of it for anything,” Courtney said. Perhaps Dylan said it best: “It really doesn’t matter where you’re going in this country there’s something new and beautiful to find.” “You don’t have to look alike to be brothers and sisters,” added Kwame. “It made me proud to be Canadian.” Words to remember as we finish off a tumultuous year. You can email me at dyeo@thestar.ca, tweet me @realityeo or visit my Facebook page.
