McSweyn Takes Down Mottram’s 3000m Record

By Len Johnson

If the rest of Australia was willing to remember Sydney for the rest of the week, Stewart McSweyn snapped us out of our reverie with two more in what is becoming a long string of outstanding performances.

 

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3,000m Australian Record last night!! 7.28.02 – 17th fastest ever 🤯🤯🤯 Thanks to my team 🙌#beansingit

A post shared by Stewart McSweyn (@stewy_mac3) on Sep 18, 2020 at 3:25am PDT

A 3:32.17 win over 1500 in Zagreb on Tuesday night (15 September), was a national record of sorts, the second, 7:28.02 two days later for third over 3000 in Rome, was some sort of national record, taking down no less than the great Craig Mottram by some four seconds.

It’s been quite the week for Australian middle-distance runners. Jessica Hull set the ball rolling with a 4:00.42 national record behind Laura Muir at Berlin’s fabled ISTAF meeting last Sunday. Hull went so close to the first sub-four by an Australian woman, a time that is proving just as difficult to crack as when John Landy was trying to achieve it for the mile almost 70 years ago.

McSweyn’s Zagreb 1500 was not a national record (Ryan Gregson, 3:31.06), nor a personal best (3:31.48 in Stockholm last month), but it is the fastest-ever winning time by an Australian.

The 3000 is something else again. Fourteen years to the day after Mottram ran 7:32.19, McSweyn’s 7:28.02 chasing home Jacob Kiplimo (7:26.64) and Jakob Ingebrigtsen (7:27.05) smashed the national record. Mottram set his mark in defeating Kenenisa Bekele, no less, at the IAAF World Cup in Athens.

Though well short of Daniel Komen’s world record 7:20.67, Kiplimo and Ingebrigtsen are now eighth and ninth on the all-time performers’ list (McSweyn is number 17). Interestingly, Jacob and Jakob are ‘only’ 13 and 15 on the all-time performances’ list, where only two of the top 10 have been run this century, none since 2007.

Rome Diamond League Men’s 3000m Results