Australia’s World Championships team has already entered staging for next month’s major international event, training in Doha, Qatar.
Qatar’s The Peninsula reports that Australia’s squad has been training in Doha since July 19th, and will remain in Qatar until the 29th. The pool swimming portion of the 2015 World Championships begins on August 2.
Australia is training at the Hamad Aquatic Center at the Aspire Zone, a massive sporting complex also known as Doha Sports City.
Qatar is nearly 5,000 kilometers (about 3,000 miles) away from Kazan, but is essentially due South from the Russian city, putting the two in the same time zone.
Australia’s head coach Jacob Verhaeren said getting comfortable with the time zone was one of the major draws to Qatar.
“Many of our swimmers have used Aspire Zone in the past and its services and facilities are world-class,” he said in the Peninsula piece. “The camp in Doha is a chance for our swimmers to familiarise with the time zone and put final touches to preparations in a highly professional environment at the state-of-the-art centre.”
Australia will be without several big names in Kazan, with Olympic 100 free silver medalist James Magnussen out after shoulder surgery and national record-holder Kylie Palmer serving a provisional doping suspension.
But the Aussies do boast the world record-holding women’s 4×100 free relay, headed by the two-headed sprint monster that is the Campbell sisters: Cate and Bronte.