Pablo Jezequel: “The flame caught on immediately within the team.”
Pablo Jezequel is captain of the Montpellier university rugby team. Last February, he and his teammates retained their French university championship title.
"As defending champions, there were certainly high expectations for us, especially since there had been a lot of changes in the team during the year and we had put it together at the last minute,"says captain Pablo Jezequel. The team did indeed shine at the French University Championships held last February in Aix-en-Provence, even though the players had little time to learn to play together."In fact, the team caught fire right away. We went for the title against Toulouse, who on paper were stronger than us, but I think we wanted it more than they did, and in the end, it showed!"
This year's event was a resounding success, not only in terms of the results but also the atmosphere, as the rugby player was keen to point out: " We had a fantastic time! There must have been between 20 and 30 men's and women's teams, and it felt like a big get-together with friends, with great organization and a fantastic atmosphere! " This is an important aspect for Pablo Jezequel, who loves nothing more than to highlight the "great values" of his sport, the "collective" and "educational" aspects, the challenge of pushing oneself beyond one's limits, but also "the physical confrontation combined with a lot of tactics, technique, and intelligence. That's what I look for in rugby, that's what I find there, and that's why I'm staying!"
“I love everything about this sport.”
At 21, the young athlete already has 15 years of experience playing for the Jacou Montpellier Nord Rugby Club. "I started when I was six, and now we're playing in Federal 2," says the young man, who recently became president of Sun 7 Rugby, a Montpellier-based rugby sevens team he started with a group of friends. Add to that his four years of commitment to the university team, and he trains between four and six hours a week, plus matches every weekend and additional training such as weight training. In short, Pablo Jezequel eats, sleeps, and lives rugby. "I love everything about this sport!"
So much so that he made it his life's work: after earning a bachelor's degree from the UFR Staps in Montpellier, Pablo went on to pursue a master's degree in sports management while working part-time at his rugby club, which made things a little easier to organize."It's a great opportunity to be in a work-study program, but on the weeks when I'm at school, I sometimes get up at 5 a.m. to work out and rush to training after class." It's a passion he hopes to pursue later by starting his own sports management business.