Thursday, 13 December 2018:
Rising distance running star Stewart McSweyn has become the first Australian man since the great Steve Moneghetti in the early 1990s to win successive Zatopek 10,000m titles.
Twelve months ago, the rangy McSweyn was a surprise winner of the race which doubles as the Australian 10,000m championship.
This time around at Lakeside Stadium he was the red-hot favourite.
After training partners Ryan Gregson and Jordan Williamsz took care of the pace-making duties, McSweyn ran the last 11 laps on his own before crossing the finish line in 27 minutes 50.89 seconds, stripping more than 14 seconds off his personal best.
Fellow Australian Jack Rayner was second in 28:12.07.
"I ran my last PB at the Oslo Diamond League so to run a PB here is pretty special," said McSweyn.
"It shows I'm in good form and I've just got to keep that momentum going forward to try and step it up again in 2019."
The versatile McSweyn has set personal bests all the way from 1500m to 10,000m this season, but is likely to focus on the shorter distances in a 2019 campaign culminating at the world championships in Doha.
"On the world stage you've got to be able to break 27 (minutes in the 10,000m) to be a contender," said the 23-year-old McSweyn.
"I think I've run faster over the 5K and the 1500 where I can be right up the pointy end of races so that's probably the main focus."
Moneghetti won four straight Zatopek 10,000m titles from 1989-92.
Late-blooming Sinead Diver has set her sights on contesting the 10,000m at next year's world championships after being the first Australian across the line in the women's Zatopek:10 on Thursday night.
Diver, 41, smashed her personal best with a time of 31:50.98, less than a second outside the automatic qualifying time for the world titles.
She finished second behind world-class Japanese runner Hitomi Niiya (31:32.50).
Diver is best known as a marathon runner, having set the fastest time by an Australian on home soil at the Melbourne Marathon in October.
But with brutal conditions expected for the world championships, the prospect of stepping down in distance to the 10,000m holds major appeal.
"I thought if I was near the standard I wouldn't mind doing it because it's going to be so hot in Doha - I don't really fancy doing a marathon there," said the Irish-born Diver.
"It would be great to do this.
"I've never done a track race at a major championships so that would be so brilliant."
