While the quest to break four minutes again on grass went unfulfilled thanks mainly to a strong wind, the distance running star from King Island wowed the crowd in one of the feature events at the Burnie Carnival by powering through the field in the final lap to win in a time of 4:03.99 after starting from scratch.

But, as the 24-year-old revealed post-race, it wasn't easy going out there.

"I think it was always going to be tough as I had to run that wind four times, so it definitely wasn't easy and I was hurting the whole way,'' he said.

"I just had to dig deep, and I had the crowd going pretty loud, so that kind of helped when I was in pain in that last 100.

"I was hoping that I had timed it right, but at the bell I looked ahead and saw a lot of guys and I knew it would take a big last lap and luckily it all fell into place in the end."

ELSEWHERE IN SPORT

It ended another strong Christmas Carnivals campaign for McSweyn, who went under that four minute mark in the Devonport Mile on Sunday, with the Devonport result a big goal for him.

McSweyn, who has qualified for the 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m for the Tokyo Olympics and is in the process of choosing which path he takes, believed the series had again provided good preparation.

"The last couple of years I have started my season here and obviously had big campaigns across Europe and had career best years, so I've always loved coming here and it is a good time of the year to test how fit I am and running in front of a home crowd is pretty special, so hopefully that will hold me in good stead as we have the Tokyo Olympics in I think just over 220 days,'' he said.

"I decided at the end of last season that I need to find that extra five per cent if I am going to be in the mix medals, and I think I am about five per cent fitter now, so I need to keep that momentum going."

Aaron Humphrey (165 metres) and James Hansen (30 metres) rounded out the podium.

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