How long have you been paddling and playing Canoe Polo ?

I have been paddling since I was 15 - from the summer 1986.
Sea kayaks in waves and in 1988 I started with river kayak (we were using the old big Tyfon kayak).
In the 1991 I saw for the first time an Italian match of kayak polo in Lerici and from that I started up a club.
Then from the summer 1991 I played kayak polo – first Italian rules and from the 1994 European rules.

You have also done a fair amount of Water Polo, like most Italians I guess, but how far did you get in that ?

I started with swimming when I was a kid (1975) and I never stopped to swim or to    play water polo until 1991.
I started with a club in 5^th division and I played until we where in 2^nd division: after I started with kayak polo.

And you were a Snowboard Instructor in the past too. There's more money in that than Canoe Polo, so what went wrong ?

I was a snowboard help instructor (the first level) but I did a lot of snowboarding too.
I started in 1990 and I was probably active in the mountains for 3 months every year.
I didn’t do so much Half-pipe (the money is there). But the choice has been very easy for me: first I like to play in a team, second I like to score and third I like to live healthy and in the snowboard lifestyle (especially the first 5-10 years) the word healthy & training were not very common together.
Now snowboard is very different: people are training a lot and they always try to get  in better shape. I train every second day with Terje Håkonsen (maybe the best in the world in snowboard since 1990) and he works hard to keep at the highest level.

You were the highest goal scorer at the Adelaide '96 World Champs. How important do you think it is to keep track of this one part of the game ?

If we want to be precise I have been top scorer at the Adelaide 96 WC at the Essen 97 EC and at the Aveiro 98 WC.
I have been always training a lot with my team but I did many hours by my self with the goal and the ball. I wanted to score from everywhere in any situation.
I can’t say that I don’t like to score and I think it is important in one game but for me the defence is the most important thing in one match.
The match is 20 minutes and everything is very important: a mistake can be very bad for your team.
For me what really counts is to be at 100% all the time. That means to have a team with 8 people that are turning (substituting) all the time.
I have a good example: In Australia I was playing maybe 5-7 minutes each games and I did 22 goals. That’s means for me that I was always at 100%. The team was very good.

Living in Norway with your wife Henrietta and daughter Philliper, you are (at the time of writing) fighting for a place back in the Italian National team to go to Japan after two years of absence. How serious do you think your chances are ?

I don’t really know. I have my first test in Italy the 25 of January. Then I will
Understand a little bit more.
I need to train a lot, I need to play a lot and I need to get pushed to improve.
I want to be honest: 80% I will be in Japan. This is what I think, I could say 50% but I feel good and I am working hard for that.

For the last two years, you have been building great interest in the sport and training up the Norwegians. Are there many players ?

The Norwegian federation want to have kayak polo in Norway and they offered me a job .
In 2 years I helped to start up 5 clubs. But I work every week to get more people.
Now we have probably around 60 people playing kayak polo.

When do you think they will go to a major Championships ?

Norway will be at the Essen Cup in May - they will play in third division and we want           
to enter the European championship in 2005.

Last year your home team in Italy, Pro Scogli Chiavari won the Italian Championships with you commuting from Norway. How strange did that feel ?

After the World Championship in Brasil 2000 I wanted to get a break from kayak Polo. Then I didn’t want to play for the National team but I said that I could still help by playing in my club team. Last year I have been training maybe 40% of what I am doing now, but my mind was different: I was ready again to play, to help the team and to score.

We were a good team and we managed to win against Posillipo Napoli, not just in the final but we won 6-3 during the regular seasons and we did 1-1 another time.

It is strange for me just to fly and play and then return back to Norway but anyway it's a good reason to meet my friends and to do something that I really enjoy.

When do you think Italy will win a major Championship ?

I thought Italy could have won in Australia and in Portugal: we had a great team.
I think Italy can win in Japan if the team is together in any situation.

To win you need a team that is together always: supporting each other and give always the best, each second of the game, take responsibility and risk.

Italy will be present for the first time at Charleroi – Essen – Mechelen - Zurich and the Bologna tournament. This has never happened before: we were just at the Essen Cup.

I think this is a good sign.

In all the time you have played internationally, what teams have you always wanted to avoid - until perhaps a final ?

When I played with the National team we didn’t want to meet Great Britain or Australia. With my team we have been in many tournaments and we always wanted to avoid the Reijnland team - when they were more or less the Dutch National team - and  Medereicher from Germany. We did not have so many problems with the English teams. I think in all my tournaments I lost one time against an English team - Viking at the champions league 1998 Caen.

This year we didn’t want to meet Deventer or Agen.

What are you doing in the Norwegian winter for training ?

This year is a special year: I mean in the last 3 years I just trained in the gym until March and after that I started to play in Italy and I trained a lot in the summer but I never got back in to shape (maybe last year 60%).

2004 for me is a challenge but I want to try - so I started the training program last August.
Paddling- gym-running-yoga etc.
In the cold winter I train 3-4 times gym 1 time in the swimming pool and 2 times on the paddle machine.

But like I said, it’s a special year so I went to Thailand for 20 days and I had with me all the polo equipment and I have been training every day there.

From now on I will be in Italy every month to train even more.
I have already bought 15 tickets for all the training camp-international tournaments and Italian competition. I really want to get there.

Before you moved to Norway, you were the Coach/Trainer, Manager, Captain and a Player in Chiavari. How has that changed now you are commuting from Norway ?

I  moved to Norway in 2000. Before I was doing everything in the club and when I moved the club started to go down hill.
In 2002 we didn’t go to the playoff in Italy and the club was in a really bad situation. Everyone blamed me and my choice for moving to Norway.

In 2003 the club had a new president and he is doing a great job.
Now I am totally out of the club, I am just a player and I am happy for that.
I think I did a great job in that club: when I left we were the Italian Men’s Champions and second in the Italian Women’s Championships. We had 4 teams: young-3^rd division- women and man 1^st division. 4 players in the National team and around 150 kids every summer involved in kayak courses.
But of course I was doing everything by myself and when I left, I thought the younger players could take over the responsibility of everything…. they didn’t.

How do you find it coaching a much lower level of player compared to back in Chiavari ?

It is difficult but not because the level is lower- the level was also lower when we started in Chiavari - but the problem in Norway is that people don’t want to train hard.
It is a strange thing.
They want to just play and they don’t want to get to a better level.
I am a competitor and I train hard so this is the most difficult thing to face.
I have to be something in between and try to find always the best way to make a good training session.
I think it will be very important to take a Norwegian team to the Essen Cup, so they can understand how big the sport really is.

© 30th January 2004