Stewart McSweyn among eight Aussies in Diamond League final

John Salvado
Sep 07, 2021, updated Sep 07, 2021

Stewart McSweyn will take winning form into the Diamond League final in Zurich. Photo: EPA

Stewart McSweyn will be gunning to end his best-ever track season on a massive high when he takes on Norwegian superstar Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the 1500m at the Diamond League final in Zurich.

McSweyn is one of eight Australians to have qualified for the lucrative two-day Weltklasse meet where the winner of each event pockets $US30,000 ($41,000).

And the Tasmanian could hardly be in better form, having won the final round of the regular Diamond League season in Brussels last week before backing up with another 1500m victory in Italy over the weekend.

The men’s 1500m field for the Diamond League decider is stacked, including Olympic gold medallist Ingebrigtsen, Kenyan Timothy Cheruiyot, who won the silver medal in Tokyo, and Australian duo McSweyn and Ollie Hoare.

Hey Twitter…. want to know the entry lists for #ZurichDL 🇨🇭?

Find out which athletes will be competing for the #DiamondTrophy this week at @WeltklasseZH! 👇👇👇

— Wanda Diamond League (@Diamond_League) September 5, 2021

“Obviously Jakob at the moment is running like an all-time great so he’s not an easy guy to knock off, but I’ll be trying to win,” Australian record holder McSweyn told AAP.

“I’ll be out there doing my best, giving it a good crack and hopefully the result will take care of itself.

“The level of world 1500m running right now is crazy strong and it’s pretty cool to be able to mix it with those guys.

“But you don’t feel the pressure because it’s the guys like Jakob who are taking the heat.

“I can still fly under the radar a bit, which is nice.”

McSweyn was somewhat disappointed to have finished outside the medals in seventh spot on his Olympic debut in Tokyo, but is already looking forward to a busy 2022 which includes the world championships in Eugene, Oregon and the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

“I haven’t had to do the three rounds in a championships before so I took a lot from that,” said the 26-year-old McSweyn.

“The big thing for me is I took a step forward this year, but there are still a lot of things I can get better at.”

Among the other Australians competing in Zurich are Tokyo high jump silver medallist Nicola McDermott.

She will resume her rivalry with Russian Mariya Lasitskene and Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh, who filled the other two places on the podium in Tokyo.

Sprinter Rohan Browning received a late call-up for the men’s 100m where he will take on the likes of American Trayvon Brommell and Canadian Andre de Grasse.