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Swimming-Dethroned sprint king Magnussen returns to national squad

MELBOURNE, Sept 15 (Reuters) - It was tough viewing for James Magnussen to see his 100 metres freestyle crown nabbed at last month's swimming world championships but the convalescing Australian drew comfort from the relatively slow times at the Kazan meeting. Magnussen is back training with the national squad in Canberra after missing the worlds due to shoulder surgery. His four-year reign as 100m world champion was broken by unfancied Chinese Ning Zetao, who swept to victory with a time of 47.84 seconds. Magnussen's personal best of 47.10 would have blown all challengers out of the water at Kazan, and the Australian is eager to reassert his authority at the Rio Olympics next year after being pipped for gold at the London Games. "(Kazan) was a challenging time for him," Magnussen's coach Mitch Falvey told The Australian newspaper. "If anything, the times they swam gave him a bit of confidence and he's excited to get back." Magnussen underwent surgery on his troublesome left shoulder in May, having lost 70 percent of his strength in it. He lost his 100m national title to team mate Cameron McEvoy, who was pipped for the world title by Ning, the first Asian swimmer to win the blue riband event. Magnussen's road to recovery is a long one, and he will not return to competition until next year. "He got back in the water two weeks ago and he's up to about 1.2km of swimming (per day)," Falvey said. "He's really making progress in the gym, too. He's up to about 10 chin-ups. He's going really well and we are hoping by November that he will be back up to a full training schedule." At the Canberra camp, the Australian team will be rehearsing for the late hours at Rio, where finals are slated to start at 10 p.m. local time at the behest of broadcasters like NBC who want medal races during prime-time viewing. That will mean sleeping in late, having breakfast at lunch and training well into the night. A small army of scientists will be monitoring the effects of the regime on the swimmers to help determine best practices for Rio, The Australian said. (Writing by Ian Ransom; Editing by Peter Rutherford)