BORN TO RUN

King Island’s Stewart McSweyn is making a name for himself on the global stage as a middle-distance runner.

Winning titles and breaking records is nice, but for middle/long distance runner Stewart McSweyn, the real thrill comes from seeing his name listed on the same page as greats such as Steve Moneghetti and Craig Mottram. Raised on King Island, McSweyn is a rapidly rising star in his field, competing all around the world. But his success in this year’s Burnie Ten really stands out in his mind.

Not only did it mark back-to-back wins for the 23-year-old athlete two years in a row, but it cemented his name as one of the greats of the 10km race, sharing the honour with some of Australia’s top distance runners, including Moneghetti and Mottram, both heroes of McSweyn’s.

“When I won in 2017, I was the first Tasmanian to ever win the Burnie Ten, and that was pretty special on its own,” he says. “And then winning back-to-back and setting race records, it was all very exciting. And then looking at all the big names who have won it before me and realising I was on the same honour roll, that was just amazing. Whoever is big in the sport has run the Burnie Ten, so it’s crazy to see myself on that same list of names. As a kid you look up to them wondering how they got to be that good, and now I’m on my way there as well.”

In this year’s Burnie Ten, McSweyn — who now lives in Melbourne — slashed seven seconds off the longstanding race record, crossing the line in a time of 28:03. According to Athletics Australia, it was the fastest time recorded by an Australian over the distance on home soil, the fastest 10km road time by an Australian in 14 years and the fourth-fastest 10km by an Aussie.

Add this to his impressive record at home and overseas, and it is clear to see McSweyn is on track to being one of the top names in Australian middle distance running: 1st in the 2016 Australian under 23 cross country, 53/146 in the 2017 World Cross Country, 1st in the 10,000m and 3rd in both the 5000m and 3000m steeplechase events at the 2017-2018 Australian Track and Field Championships, and 5th in the 5000m at this year’s Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Regularly breaking his own personal bests, McSweyn has set his sights on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and under the guidance of Cathy Freeman’s former coach Nic Bideau, he looks very likely to do well when he gets there.

Growing up on King Island, on his parents’ beef cattle and merino sheep farm, McSweyn was always a keen sportsman, mostly playing football, cricket and tennis as a child and focusing more on running when he reached his mid-teens. He went to the King Island District School for primary school but he and his twin brother moved to a Ballarat boarding school at the age of 13, where they completed their high schooling in Victoria.

“The boarding school had a camping program where they went to King Island and lived there for a whole term, so obviously that was a big attraction for my parents,” he laughs. “And while I was at boarding school I came home to visit five or six times a year, so I came home more often then, than I do now, which is usually just once a year.

“It was while I was there that I started focusing a lot more on running, getting into it more seriously when I was about 15 or 16. But I’ve always been very academically focused as well. I’m currently working my way through a teaching degree, studying to teach PE and English. I’m doing the degree through the University of Southern Queensland because they have a really good program to study online, which is really handy when I spend so much time travelling and overseas these days.”

McSweyn now lives in Melbourne, as it is a more central location for his training regimen, including camps, meets and other events. But he also spends a lot of time travelling overseas, and has a base in London as well, being a convenient hub for competitions around Europe.

“With athletics a lot of nations compete so you really do need to travel. There’s some 12-14 nations in the Diamond League in Europe alone so there is heaps of travel involved,” he says. “But it’s so cool that my sport takes me all over the world and I get to see so much and meet so many people, so it’s not a bad life, doing what you love.”

He recently returned from competing in Belgium, where he suffered a painful shoulder injury while running in the Diamond League 5000m event. While making his final surge across the finish, his running spikes snagged on the track and sent him crashing to the ground. He finished the race and broke his per-

sonal best but missed out on first place and dislocated his shoulder. “That … yeah, that was pretty painful,” he says. “It took them eight or nine tries to put it back into place.

“The Continental Cup was a week later and I had to get myself ready to compete in that. I was too sore to train for a few days after the injury but I was able to tape it up and did pretty well in the end. It is 100 per cent the worst injury I’ve ever had and there was also the bruised ego of tripping and falling, but I smashed my 5km PB there so that made it hurt a bit less.”

Competing at the Commonwealth Games was another confidence boost for the young runner, and while the world exposure was exciting, he says the best part was being able to compete with his family and friends cheering him on trackside.

“So many of my competitions are a long way from home and I don’t often have anyone there cheering me on. But I had about 20-30 family and friends at the Commonwealth Games watching me and having them involved in the experience, cheering me on trackside, it’s something I’ll never forget.

“It’s a once-in-a-career experience, competing in an event of that size on home soil and having people there for you is a huge boost. It’s not often you get to race in front of family and friends for a major championship.

“There’s a point where you’re hurting but you don’t want to put in a bad performance with family and friends there, so it all helps. And being able to see them right after I raced was a very special moment.”

McSweyn’s training regimen is fairly intense, and he says between this and studying, he has little time for much else. “Generally I run between 150-160km a week and a couple of gym sessions a week in between those runs,” he says. “I run twice a day most days and on Sundays I only run once but I do a longer run! It sounds pretty full on but your body gets used to it. It sounds worse than what it is, I think. Your body gets into that routine.”

But he says his success is about more than just hard physical training. “I think a lot of it comes down to genes, too. I happen to have a good aerobic base, I think,” he says. “And when you reach the top levels, a lot of it becomes mental as well, in terms of how well you can get through all the training and also in facing off against other competitors. Everyone is so close in a race that any tiny little advantage matters. Like having self-belief when you’re racing against others who might be more experienced or have won Olympic medals. You need to believe in yourself in order to give it your all despite the intimidation.”

McSweyn is far from the top of his game. At 23 he is considered young in a discipline where middle distance runners tend to reach their peak in their late 20s. “It takes years to get that strength and endurance and you get better adapted to the training and, of course, more experienced,” he says.

“I got back from Europe about two months ago and I’ve spent most of that time having a little break, catching up with people I haven’t seen in ages, but most of my time is still taken up with uni and training. I want to keep moving forward so that when I’m older I can keep putting some good results together.”

McSweyn’s next competition is the national 10km titles in Melbourne in December, where he will be defending his title after placing first last year.

More than anything, he looks forward to the two or three weeks a year when he gets to come home to the family farm over Christmas/New Year and reconnect with his island roots.

“I definitely miss King Island. I spent a lot of my childhood living there, my parents still own the same farm I grew up on. Mum is a nurse and dad runs a merino and beef cattle farm, just like it’s always been. I love coming home to that.

“And it’s such good running there! I do a lot of running through the farm and all around when I’m back there. It’s the cleanest, freshest air in the world and it’s an unbelievable place to train. It’s my secret spot, I don’t want to talk it up too much as a training base in case other people start doing it too! But I definitely get in good shape while I’m there.”