King of the road

FOR 32 years interstate raiders have swooped on the Burnie Ten — one of the country’s most prestigious 10km races. But yesterday King Island native Stewart McSweyn broke through to create history in the 2017 edition as the first Tasmanian winner.

THE “Mayor of King Island” has become the toast of Tasmania with Stewart McSweyn creating Burnie Ten history as the first local winner of the famed coastal event.

McSweyn, who hails from King Island but is now based in Melbourne, ended a 33-year drought for Tasmanians after beating home two-time defending champion Brett Robinson yesterday.

His victory saw him join some of Australian athletics royalty on the honour roll, with the likes of Stephen Moneghetti, Craig Mottram and Collis Birmingham all previous victors.

It continued a breakout 2017 campaign for the 22year-old, who represented Australia in the 3000m steeplechase at August’s world championships and also ran the third-fastest mile by an Australian this year — breaking the Tasmanian open record in the process — at the Cork City Sports athletics meet in Ireland in July.

“Since I have been a kid I have known about the race. To find out no Tasmanian had ever won it before me is something pretty big,” said McSweyn, who was the only athlete to break the 30-minute barrier (29min 59sec).

“It is such a big race on the North West Coast and obviously I have known about it for a long time, I’ve been dreaming of this day for a while. “How special is it to me? “I would say it is definitely right up there, from where I am from the race means a bit.

“I would definitely put it up there as one of my biggest achievements.

“It is a good indicator that my training has gone pretty well and from now on it is getting ready for Commonwealth Games trials.”

Robinson was second in a time of 30:24, almost two minutes slower than when he saluted 12 months ago, with 2011 champion James Nippersess two seconds behind.

Rio Olympian and triple Commonwealth Games representative Eloise Wellings made it back-to-back victories in the women’s race, with her time of 33:45 marginally slower than last year.

Wellings pipped Irish-born, 40-year-old long distance specialist Sinead Diver by five seconds, with Tasmanian Olympian Milly Clark third.

“There was probably a better field this year than there was last year so it was more of a challenge and I had to run a bit smarter,” she said.

“I am really happy to come away with a win again, it is another strong race.”