Stewart McSweyn cemented his status as Tasmania’s greatest ever runner by completing a clean sweep of the state’s distance records.
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Just a week after claiming a 40-year-old 10,000-metre record in Norway, the King Islander showed his versatility by also taking the state 1500m record in Germany.
The 23-year-old’s time of 3:34.82 to win at the Soundtrack meet in Tubingen is also well under the most recent Olympic/world championships qualifying time of 3:36.00.
It placed McSweyn 10th on the Australian all-time rankings and moved him to eighth on the IAAF world rankings for 2018, with the national record holder Ryan Gregson being the only Australian to have recorded a faster time in the past five years.
McSweyn won by a comfortable two-second margin over Moroccan Hicham Akankam with Kenyan Vincent Letting third.
The winning time took four seconds off a Tasmanian record held by Launceston’s James Hansen as the feat reignited debate among athletics observers as to what is the best distance for the state’s reigning open male athlete of the year.
After finishing fifth in the 5000m and then 11th in the 10,000m at April’s Commonwealth Games, McSweyn, who has experience at athletics, cross-country and university world championships, debated the subject himself.
“Right now the 5k. I just don’t think I’ve had the hard years of running yet to be competitive at the 10k,” he said on the Gold Coast.
“At world level I think I’m ranked 21 in the 5k right now so I think in any field I can be competitive on the world stage.
“But I’m only 22, I’ve still got time to get up to the world level that was showcased (here).”
McSweyn, who turned 23 at the start of this month, said his goal heading to Europe was to claim a clean sweep of Tasmanian distance records.
He achieved this in his first two outings on the continent following his 28:05.37 at the Oslo Diamond League last weekend and now holds all Tasmanian records from 1500 to 10,000m.
Tasmanian athletics oracle Brian Roe suggested the achievement puts McSweyn above two-time Olympian Collis Birmingham and behind only world championship bronze medallist Craig Mottram in Australian middle distance running.
Victoria-based McSweyn, who trains with the Melbourne Track Club under Mottram’s former coach Nic Bideau, will next focus on the upcoming IAAF Diamond League meets.
He will contest the 3000m in the Rabat meet on July 13 moving on to the 5000m in London which is his main focus for the remainder of his time overseas.