Sunshine Coast Water Polo officials expect the national women’s team will feel right at home in the region, in the lead-up to the Tokyo Games.
The Stingers will be based here from February 7 until their departure to the Olympics, which is due to start on July 23.
They’re set to train at St Andrew’s Aquatic Centre and Kawana Aquatic Centre.
“Facilities wise, they have everything they need,” SCWP president Paul Coolican said.
“The facilities at St Andrews are second to none. They’re wonderful.”
“The complex there is the right size and they have the timing equipment. Kawana is the same.”
The venue at St Andrew’s opened just last year while training at Kawana has proved a winning formula before.
“Last time we had them (the Stingers) here to train they went on to win at the Olympics (2020) … and with any sort of luck they might do that again,” Coolican said.
He said water polo had come a long way in the region during the past 20 years and there are several other pools which can accommodate international teams, including Noosa, Sunshine Coast Grammar, Nambour and the University of the Sunshine Coast.
“When schools are putting a pool in now, they’re not thinking about putting a pool in just for swimming, they’re thinking about playing water polo in it as well,” Coolican said.
“That mentality took a long time to develop.”
The Sunshine Coast school competition is thriving, with almost 100 teams in four different age groups.
Many representative players have emerged, with London Olympian Billy Miller perhaps the most notable during the past decade.
Coolican expected the current crop of local youngsters to be inspired by the Stingers’ visit and he hoped they could watch the national stars.
“To have that sort of skill level available for kids to see would be wonderful,” he said.
He also hoped the local association could help the Stingers around the pool deck.
The Stingers will be based at Coolum and Coolican said the squad should be able to cross-train by riding to the gym and the pool at St Andrews, while they will have easy access to the beach.
Stingers captain and dual Olympian Rowie Webster believed they should be able to prepare perfectly in the region.
“We really enjoy being in Queensland and the Sunshine Coast will provide us with warm weather and ideal facilities to allow us to focus on our training and preparation in those final months leading into Tokyo,” she said.
“We know the Sunshine Coast was a great base for the Aussie Stingers in 2000, so we are looking forward to getting our next generation of players back to where it all began before that infamous gold medal moment.”
