Dane Bird-Smith prepares for Qatar heat in Darwin

QATAR plays host to some of the most gruelling conditions on Earth for athletes ... but, then again, so as does our Top End

Rio Olympics bronze medallist Dane Bird-Smith at Marrara athletics facility as he prepares for 2020 in Darwin. Picture. Glenn Campbell

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QATAR plays host to some of the most gruelling conditions on Earth for athletes, as does our beloved Top End.

Warmer than Australian average conditions are the attraction bringing 2016 Rio Olympics bronze medallist Dane Bird-Smith to Darwin to hone his speedwalking craft as the rest of the country shakes the frost of winter away.

Bird-Smith with his father and trainer David Smith are based at the NTIS for the next couple of weeks to prepare his body for the IAAF World Athletics Championships held in Doha at the end of the month, a notoriously hot part of the globe.

“I’m in the 20k event which runs outside of the stadium,” he told the NT News.

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“Being in Doha, Qatar, the marathon athletes will be competing in very hot conditions.”

“So where better to face the hot conditions than Darwin?”

Heat conditioning expands beyond the next two weeks, however. Bird-Smith has been preparing at his Brisbane base.

“We prepared ourselves to come here first,” he said.

“In Brisbane we trained in the heat chamber three times a week at 34 degrees on the treadmill for an hour.”

“I need to get the body used to living and working at extremes.”

To beat the Middle Eastern heat, Bird-Smith’s world championships events will run at night into the wee hours of the morning.

“We can’t escape the heat so they’ll put us at 11.30 at night,” he said.

“When I’m in Dubai I’ll be waking at 2PM and going to sleep at 3AM, graveyard shift stuff.”

He said the mental strength required is as much as it is physical. “It’s full on, the mental aspect of it where you have to continue to push and be ready to give your absolute best,” he said.

Bird-Smith is using these processes as a build-up to peak performance for next year’s Tokyo Olympics.

“Leading up to Rio was a four-year process,” he said.

“This is the same thing, the game plan hasn’t changed.”

“We know what works and how to get it done, we just have to get out there and get the kilometres in but train smart.”