In the last year or so, Australian middle-distance superstar Stewart McSweyn has had just about everyone’s measure on the track, both at home and overseas.
But giving training partner Tom Thorpe a 200-metre head start at Central Park on Easter Monday proved to be a bridge too far.
Racing off scratch in the 3200m invitational race at the Stawell Gift carnival, McSweyn chased down nine of the 12 runners ahead of him, including fellow world-class performers Ryan Gregson, Matthew Ramsden and Brett Robinson.
The 25-year-old Tasmanian eventually crossed the line in fourth place in eight minutes 20.36 seconds, a stunning time on grass.
Thorpe (200m) took the win in 8:10.55.
“I picked Tom (as the likely winner) pre-race,” said McSweyn.
“He had a good handicap for the form he is in but you still have to execute a good race so credit to the boys who were out the front.
“You always think you’re a chance especially when a few guys start coming back towards you.
“You think I’m going to pick them up one by one and hopefully I can get to the final guy.
“With two laps to go I looked up and saw I still had a pretty big gap to make up so I thought I’d have to run that second-last lap as my last lasp to try and get on.
“Once I couldn’t get quite to where they were, it was a pretty rough last 400 metres.”
Had McSweyn claimed the win it would have rivalled Cathy Freeman’s famed victory off scratch in the 400m at Stawell back in 1996.
Having already bettered the Tokyo Olympics qualifying standard in the 5000m and 10,000m, McSweyn will now turn his attention to winning the 1500m at the Australian championships in Sydney in mid-April.
During a stellar 2020 campaign in Europe, McSweyn broke the Australian record in the 1500m and 3000m.
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