{"id":329515,"date":"2023-09-08T21:16:47","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T21:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=329515"},"modified":"2023-09-08T22:01:27","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T22:01:27","slug":"aussie-olympian-shatters-record-in-rare-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=329515","title":{"rendered":"Aussie Olympian shatters record in rare event"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\ufeffustralian running champion Stewart McSweyn<\/a> has endured a gruelling couple of years plagued by health and injuries, but the tough Tasmanian shook off his troubles to shatter a 17-year-old national record in Brussels on Saturday morning (AEST).<\/p>\n

Having a hit-out over the rarely run distance of 2000 metres, the Tokyo Olympian clocked 4:48.77 to finish third at the Brussels Diamond League.<\/p>\n

In the same swift race in the Belgian capital, Norwegian Olympic gold medallist Jakob Ingebrigsten eclipsed the 24-year-old world record belonging to Moroccan legend Hicham El Guerrouj.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Awful scenes as Papenhuyzen cruelled again\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Munster's scathing reaction to 'terrible' Storm defeat\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Drought-breaking Carlton win soured by McKay blow\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Assisted by Wavelight \u2014 a technological function that sees lights flash at an assigned pace on the rail of the track \u2014 Ingrebrigsten stopped the clock at 4:43.13 to break El Guerrouj\ufeff's long-standing world record of 4:44.79, set in Berlin in 1999.<\/p>\n

McSweyn slashed 1.99 seconds from one of the Australian records held by Craig Mottram, shattering the 4:50.76 posted by the towering world championship bronze medallist in Melbourne in 2006.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

McSweyn's record-breaking run is a sweet reward for persistence, having been rocked by long COVID and the flu in 2022<\/a> before dealing with hamstring and shin injuries this year.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffA pretty decent night which is always good!" a delighted McSweyn told Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffI think any record that Craig Mottram has is going to be a tough record to break. The best year of his career was probably 2006.<\/p>\n

"Hopefully I can keep this momentum going into next year.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"\ufeffIt was pretty tough [dealing with my health and injury struggles]. I think every athlete is going to battle at some point. I've had a couple of little things that I've been pretty unlucky with since 2021 … You've just got to keep fighting."<\/p>\n

McSweyn and Ingebrigsten will compete over the mile at Eugene's Diamond League final next weekend.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"I feel like I'm coming into good shape, so hopefully I can close the season well with the Diamond League final and then use that momentum leading into an Olympic year in Paris next year," said McSweyn, who's coached by Melbourne Track Club coach Nic Bideau.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/Diamond_League\/status\/1700240934548492623<\/a><\/p>\n

In March last year, he crashed out\ufeff of a 5000-metre race in Melbourne and, a day later, was diagnosed with long COVID, forcing him to withdraw from the world indoor championships.<\/p>\n

He fought back to finish ninth over 1500 metres at Eugene's world championships in July last year, but was again failed by health when the flu knocked him down a couple of weeks later. He pulled out of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n

McSweyn won a bronze medal with Australia's mixed 4x2km relay team at the world cross-county championships<\/a> in Bathurst in February, but hamstring and shin injuries have since led to a smattering of DNFs and, by his exceptional standards, sluggish results.\ufeff<\/p>\n

At August's world championships in\ufeff Budapest, he was eliminated in the heats of the 1500 metres.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old from Tasmania's King Island then encountered another hurdle \u2014 literally on this occasion \u2014 when he tripped over a falling opponent in the heats of the 5000 metres<\/a>\ufeff. He struggled home in 19th place and the referee progressed him to the final, in which he finished 13th in 13:26.58.<\/p>\n

In Brussels on Saturday morning (AEST), McSweyn was not only buoyed by his record-breaking run but that of Ingebrigsten, who's a close mate of his.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"Obviously he's one of my best mates on the circuit.\ufeff I had breakfast and lunch with him today so I knew he was feeling good going into the race," McSweyn said.<\/p>\n

"I think it's a privilege to be able to race against him and step onto the start line with him.<\/p>\n

"You'd like to beat him, but tonight he was untouchable and just amazing.<\/p>\n

"To be in that race tonight was really special."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A\ufeffustralian running champion Stewart McSweyn has endured a gruelling couple of years plagued by health and injuries, but the tough Tasmanian shook off his troubles […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":329517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329515"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=329515"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":329523,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329515\/revisions\/329523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/329517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=329515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=329515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=329515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}