06 Jan 2016
Doha, 6 January 2016. From 4-23 January, the Swedish National Sprints team will use Aspire Academy as its base to prepare for a number of major competitions in 2016, such as the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Portland USA in March, and the European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam in July. This is in addition to 2016 also being a summer Olympic Games year.
“We usually go on warm weather camps this time of the year, when the weather back home gets really bad. Our athletes have a lot of important competitions coming and it’s our goal to provide them with the best preparation possible, so they are able to improve and achieve personal bests”, said Swedish Athletics coach Håkan Andersson, who is very happy about the set-up at Aspire. “This is the first time we are here at Aspire after going to South Africa in the past. We are benefiting a lot from the facilities and the great support of the Academy’s sports science team that also enables us to do some important testing.”
One of the successful athletes from the Swedish team who is currently training in Doha is Johan Wissman, a national 200m and 400m record holder, former 400m European champion and a silver medalist in the 200m and 400m World Indoor Championships. “My main focus is, of course, qualifying for the Olympic Games in Rio. Right now I am not competing and I will focus on training until April. As a long distance sprinter it’s great to come out to a place like Aspire Academy and train in the warm weather outside. I am looking forward to the next couple of weeks and a good training camp in Doha.”