Not long after breaking the tape on Wilson Street, the 23-year-old King Island runner qualified for and competed in his maiden Commonwealth Games, and lowered his personal benchmarks across 1500, mile, 3000m, 5000m and 10,000m distances in Europe. 

One year on, he has returned to the race that kick-started it all, determined to continue his career’s upwards trajectory. 

“To get over the line last year was a pretty sweet victory and it set me up for a big 2018 year, so I’ll try and do the same and defend the title and lead onto a good 2019 season,” McSweyn said. 

“I’ve just come off my break after European season but I think I’m in reasonably good shape so I don’t see a reason I can’t run pretty quick on Sunday.

“I’m hoping the weather’s good, but I think anywhere around 28:30 or even under if it’s a good day could be the kind of time I run.”

McSweyn knows the difference weather can make in Burnie, having run 28:44 for third in 2016 before winning in a time of 29:59 last year.

Home crowd support in the first and last 800m powered McSweyn to the finish line and he’s counting on similar backing on Sunday. 

“I just like it because it’s an out and back course so you have people along the whole way - I like how the finish works where you come off the hill and you’ve got about an 800m stretch where it’s packed with people,” he said.

“Since I was a kid you’d see the ads on TV - it’s the race you’d know about and look up to from a young age so to compete in it and then obviously win last year was pretty sweet.

“I’m hoping I can put in another good performance because I always have a lot of friends and family there, it makes it a pretty exciting race so I’m looking forward to it.”