McSweyn through to semi finals allows parents to breath again
For Stewart McSweyn’s parents, it was just another step – albeit a big one — in their son’s journey as he easily qualified for the Olympic 1500m semi-finals. THEIR REACTION >>
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THE sigh of relief could be heard across King Island.
For Stewart McSweyn’s parents, Jacky and Scott, it was just another step – albeit a big one — in their son’s journey as he easily qualified for the Olympic 1500m semi-finals.
They are used to sitting up all hours of the night battling technology trying to watch Stewart compete in Diamond League meets around the world.
Now he is the pin up boy of the Australian Olympic athletics team, and living up to the billing.
“We are absolutely thrilled for him,” mum Jacky said.
“He is one step closer to what he wants to achieve by making the semi-finals.
“All credit to him, he’s the one who has done all the hard work, as parents we are just spectators.”
The water on the Tokyo track from heavy rain also had Jacky fearful in what at times can be a rough event with plenty of contact.
But Stewart led out hard in his heat and coasted into the next round.
The expectations on Stewart is high with talks of a podium finish and possibly even a gold medal if everything goes his way.
“There is a lot of pressure on him that he will return home with a medal” she said.
“Stewey is an optimist and he has a quiet confidence and he’s done a lot of hard work to be where he is at.
“But he’s also realistic.
“It will be incredibly hard for him to win a medal and as parents we just want him to be happy and we will support him no matter what happens and what he does when he comes back.”
McSweyn’s meticulous Olympic preparation put to the
TWO months of meticulous planning and training in the Swiss Alps will be put to the test for Olympic medal hopeful Stewart McSweyn when he launches his Tokyo campaign Tuesday morning.
King Island’s middle distance star — Australia’s best medal chance on the track in Tokyo — will contest the 1500m in one of the hottest fields of the Games.
McSweyn, who narrowed his focus on the 1500m despite qualifying for both the 5000m and 10,000m events, has based himself in an apartment in St Moritz alongside coach Nic Bideau and national teammate Dave McNeill, who is in the 5000m, for the past two months.
It has provided the perfect backdrop for altitude training, but more importantly given a Covid-19 free environment to avoid any disruptions leading into his Olympic debut.
“Training at St Moritz went well and I feel like through my last couple of races and
months of training I have built good momentum coming into Tokyo,” McSweyn said from the athletes’ village.
“I think my best chance of being in the mix for the medals is running my own race
and by my style so that’s what I will be trying to do.
“The 1500m field internationally is very strong so I’m going to have to be at my best
to be competitive.”
Since teaming up with Cathy Freeman’s coach Bideau at Melbourne Track Club,
the 26-year-old has continually produced eye-catching performances across various distances
at Diamond League meets across the world.
However it was a race in Monaco early last month that made McSweyn’s mind up about a maiden Olympic campaign, where he smashed his own national and Oceania 1500m record (3:29.51), taking a second off his previous best.
Ranked No. 4 in the world in his pet event, McSweyn’s medal hopes received a boost when former Olympic 1500m champion Taoufik Makhloufi with drew through injury.
American Matthew Centrowitz will be back to defend his Olympic title, while world champion Timothy Cheruiyot was given a late reprieve after initially missing selection for Kenya before other teammates were banned for doping violations.
Channel 7 athletics anchor Bruce McAvaney believes McSweyn is a genuine medal chance.
“We’ve had one man qualify for the 1500m final in 40 years, we could get three
here,” McAvaney said as the athletics program kicked off in Tokyo.
“Stewy’s got a real medal chance in the 1500m and the last (Australian) to get a medal
in that was Herb Elliott in 1960.”
Island’s big mission to screen Olympic debut
By Helen Kempton
THEY have a parmi at the local pub named after him, want to name a street in his honour and now the residents of King Island are sweating on emergency generators arriving in time to watch their favourite son compete at the Olympics on television.
The King Island Council’s communication tower at Currie was hit by lightning and taken out of action on Tuesday.
Emergency generators are on their way to the Bass Strait island courtesy of WIN.
Mayor Julie Arnold said the community was hoping they arrive and can be hooked up in time for the community to tune in to watch Stewart McSweyn compete in the 1500m heats on August 3, the semis (if he makes the cut) on August 5 and the finals on August 7.
“It’s Stewie’s Olympics debut and while we can watch him on the internet we hope we can also watch him on the telly as a community,” Mayor Arnold said.
“The communications tower serves Currie mostly so there is also talk about having events at the Grassy Club where they still have reception.
“We have every belief he will make the finals and the whole island is excited.”
Mayor Arnold said the King Island Council had made enquiries about naming a street after Stewie but has been told a street cannot be named after a person in Tasmania until they have died.
“Of course we don’t want that to happen for a very. very long time,” she said.
In Queensland there is a pitch to rename Paul Pisasale Bridge in honour of Ash Barty but Tasmania’s nomenclature rules are different.
McSweyn has not been home to King Island for some time due to covid-19 and his intense training schedule in Europe.
“But we will certainly will mint a crown for him when he returns home as the King of King Island though,” she laughed.
At the King Island Hotel, there is a drink named after McSweyn and a Go for Gold Stewie parmi on the menu which is adorned with golden pineapple rings.
“We are really hoping we can show the events he is competing in on the big telly in the bar,” a spokeswoman from the pub said.
The King Island Council inherited the communications tower and it is about to spend $250,000 on a major maintenance project.
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