McSweyn Threatens National 1500m record in Stockholm

By David Tarbotton for Athletics Australia

It was a successful afternoon for the Aussies on Sunday at the second Diamond League of the year held in Stockholm’s historic 1912 Olympic stadium.

Tasmanian Stewart McSweyn ran the perfect race which saw him again challenge the national 1500m record, clocking a PB 3:31.48 to place third behind winner, Kenya’s Tim Cheruiyot with 3:30.25. It was McSweyn’s third career race under 3:32 and tantalising close to training partner Ryan Gregson’s 10-year old Australian record of 3:31.06.

“I'm happy with my performance,” McSweyn said. “I felt good at the bell and I thought I had a lot there but once Tim moved up the back straight, I felt I'm not feeling as good as I thought!”

McSweyn who earlier this month still training in Melbourne with the Nic Bideau’s squad, felt blessed just to have the opportunity to be competing.

“We didn't think we were going to get any races in so to come over here and get a couple of runs has been really good. Before I left Australia it was in full lockdown. It's winter there, maybe 9 or 10 degrees and raining so it's quite a transition.”

It was McSweyn’s second race of his European campaign after opening with an impressive 13:13.22 5000m.

“Monaco was first one off the plane and I find it hard 20 hours flying from Australia, I thought I'd be better today. Everything is moving in the right direction, I still have a lot of room to get better to achieve the next goal.”

And what is that goal?

“I've got the 10,000m national record but in everything else I'm (ranked) second, I want to start ticking some off. Most of them are held by Craig Mottram, he was a superstar, I just have to keep ticking away and hopefully get one before I retire.”

In the Stockholm 5000m, Perth’s Matthew Ramsden was fifth, and just outside his PB in a time of 3:35.99. It was another most impressive performance from Ramsden as it was his third race in ten days.

In her second European competition of the season, Central Coast’s Nicola McDermott placed third in the high jump behind Ukrainian pair Yuliya Levchenko and Yaroslava Mahuchikh. Very competitive, McDermott compiled a clean sheet until 1.93m which she negotiated on her second attempt before bowing out with misses at an equal PB height of 1.96m.

It has been a big ten days for Jessica Hull which started with a national 5000m record in Monaco, then mid-week selected in the Olympic team for Tokyo, and then capped off today with a terrific fifth in the 1500m in a time of 4:02.65 – just outside her PB.

Returning to the venue where he ran his PB two years ago, Peter Bol was running his third race in ten days and ran strongly for seventh in the 800m in 1:46.26.

Mid-week Matthew Ramsden travelled to the Irena Szewinska Memorial Meet in Bydgoszcz Poland, where he clocked a stunning 4:55.44 to easily win the 2000m and defeat local, Marcin Lewandowski – the 2019 World Championships 1500m bronze medallist. Ramsden’s mark was the second fastest ever by an Australian. Some perspective on the terrific performance over an odd distance of 2000m, is it would be equal to running four 59 second laps for a 3:56 mile, then continuing at the same pace for another lap.

Also competing at the meet were Melbourne half-mile pair Joseph Deng and Peter Bol. National record holder Deng, ran well to clock 1:45.86 for third, just ahead of Bol’s 1:45.92.

Following his terrific 3:34 1500m last week, Oli Hoare travelled to Los Angeles to tackle a 5000m where he destroyed his PB by 79 seconds, clocking 13:28.33 to move inside the Australian top-30 of all-time. Also at the meet, Morgan Mitchell made a last minute decision to open her season with a strong 2:01.58 800m to place fourth, just behind America’s Emma Coburn, the 2017 steeplechase world champion.