Family Sport

Last Friday in Melbourne leading daily paper Herald Sun one could notice this...

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Rugby on water - it looks like this..

In a small pool, two 5-person teams fight without hesitation for the ball. The goal is to throw it into a basket similar to a basketball. In my opinion, it is not rugby, but rather basketball in kayaks, although sometimes it is fierce - see HERE.

What possessed me to write about this?

This amazing duo - our daughter-in-law and granddaughter - visited us yesterday.

This young company is clearly ageing me, so I'll go back 22 years.

Year 2002 - Sarah - our daughter-in-law - qualified to the Australian team for the Canoe-Polo World Championships in Essen - Germany.

It was for this occasion that I bought this T-shirt - it survived these 22 years better than I did.

The Australians won the bronze medal - Germany won, Poland - 17th place.

That same year I also had the opportunity to try this sport.

The occasion was our daughter's wedding - the daughter-in-law organised a match - Milewski Family vs. The Rest of the World.

The family team consisted of the Bride and Groom, Daughter-in-Law and Son and... me.

As expected, after a few minutes I fell into the water.

Here I will explain that kayaks are equipped with a protective skirt, so after capsizing, water does not flow into the kayak and the competitor can easily do an underwater somersault - CLICK.

Well, maybe not so easily - I couldn't twist out, which complicated matters a bit because to get out of the kayak underwater you had to unfasten the protective skirt and crawl out of the kayak upside down.

Anyway, I survived, I was replaced by a reserve player and I could calmly watch the rest of the game. The Rest of the World (Monash University team) won 7:2.

2 years later our daughter-in-law gave birth to a child, then three more and I thought the whole thing would remain in the realm of memories.

But no, last year Sarah felt the call of youth and resumed training, her daughter Matylda joined her. This year both qualified for the Australian national team for the world championships - the mother in the senior team, the daughter in the junior team.

In October they will go to the championships in Dequing - China - CLICK.