READY TO REIGN

Coach says greatness in McSweyn’s future

TASMANIAN Stewart McSweyn will hold every Australian athletics record between 1500m and 10,000m arguably the nation’s best running coach believes.

McSweyn smashed the Australian 3000m by a whopping four seconds in England finishing third in the Diamond League event with a 7 minutes 28.02 seconds run.

The previous Australian mark of 7 mins 32.19 secs was set by Craig Mottram 14 years ago, with the record run coming just two days after McSweyn won the 1500m at the Hanzekovic Memorial in Croatia, where he produced the fourth fastest time ever by an Australian of 3 mins 32.17 secs.

His coach Nic Bideau, who also led Cathy Freeman to Olympic gold in Sydney and coached Craig Mottram during his peak years, believes at just 25, McSweyn will rewrite Australian record books.

“The 1500m record — it is just a matter of time before he breaks it, before he breaks all the records,” Bideau said. “He’ll break the 5000m, he’ll break the mile, he’ll break all the records.

“When I had Mottram I said. ‘these records will last for 50 years’ because it is very rare to find a talent like that but we’ve got another one.”

While the 3000m is a nonOlympic distance, McSweyn has already qualified for the

Tokyo Games 5000m and 10,000m events and is a certainty to add the 1500m as well.

Bideau said McSweyn would most likely run in two of the three races, but which two was yet to be decided.

The 5000m and 10,000m have been dominated by African runners, but Bideau said the 1500m also poses challenges for a runner like

McSweyn with heats, semis and a final.

“Once Stewey is in the final, he’s 100 per cent top five for me,” he said.

“But the challenge is in the semis.

“Heats will be fine, but in the semis if you go out and run hard (as McSweyn likes to do), the rest will sit in behind you and you’ll be the pace maker.

“He’s getting better at it all the time and he could burn them off.

“With the 10km, he definitely can run fast in the last lap if he’s there, but can he keep up with these African guys? He hasn’t done it yet and no white fella has won a medal in the 10km since the 1960s. But this guy is a special talent.

“It is too early, the Olympic Games are eight months or three years and eight months away (if postponed again). We’ll make those decisions as we get closer.”

Bideau has been coaching McSweyn since 2016 when he was just a skinny kid from a King Island farm relocating to Melbourne.

He believes his King Island upbringing and active lifestyle has contributed to his easy going attitude and overall success.

While he said it would be tough, an Olympic medal was not out of the question.

“They are tough to get,” he said. “But he’s a chance, he’s definitely good enough.”