No Water Polo Medal, but Lots of Pride for the French

GWANGJU – French water polo captain Alexandre Camarasa has a lot of strings to his bow.  While he may not go home with silverware, he will take home a very big sense of pride.

France played Hungary on Monday in the battle for fifth spot in the men’s water polo competition.  Alexandre, currently undertaking a Master of Law and Business at Aix-Marseille, with a specialty in sports, says the Universiade is something he has been happy to participate in.

“There are a lot of good teams, and I wanted to have a medal, but we didn’t play well against the United States.  Now, we want to take fifth place, and we want to say that France is now competitive at water polo.”

The mixture of international and youth players on the team made it hard to balance time in the water, a factor that influenced the gameplay.

“It’s hard, because we have five players from the national team, and the others are young.  These five players are always in the water and it is a long tournament.  I am happy with the team now, because in the beginning we weren’t doing the right things in attack and defence.”

“I need to lead the team and say that we need to play together, when the other players aren’t going well I’m here to tell them to concentrate, and I’m here for them.”

Alexandre wants to be able to continue his studies and his love of sport, but he says the options to do both simultaneously in France are very limited.

“I want to do economy management, but it is hard because not many say you can study and play sport, you need to choose.  I don’t want to choose because I love these two things.  I think that mentality is starting to change.”

France’s aggression and big bodies in the pool may prove useful in their classification match on Monday, with Alexandre leading the team.

Davis Harrigan (AUS), FISU Young Reporter