Medal path opens up for McSweyn

The path for Australia’s athletics medal hope Stewart McSweyn has opened up with one of the best runners in the world, former Olympic gold medallist Taoufik Makhloufi, pulling out the Tokyo Games.

The 33-year-old Algerian won gold in the 1500m in London in 2012 and silver in both the 800m and 1500m in Rio, but has now withdrawn from his chance to claim a third successive medal.

Tasmanian Stewart McSweyn is hunting a medal in the 1500m.Credit:Getty Images

He confirmed on Facebook that a knee injury has ruled him out of Tokyo. At his age it might not be totally surprising but given his credentials Makhloufi remained a significant threat in the 1500m.

Makhloufi had slipped to No.5 in the world rankings but that was in part due to the interruption in competition from COVID, for he was a proven runner who would remain a medal threat if fit.

Quite how the field of 1500m runners currently stands is hard to read. Under the World Athletics rankings system Timothy Cheruiyot remains the top athlete in the world but initially he couldn’t make his own national team.

Cheruiyot finished fourth at the Kenyan national trials and missed out on the team despite having the world-leading time this year and having won back-to-back Diamond League meets late in the season.

He was only added to the team late after other members of the Kenyan team, one of them a 1500m runner, were forced to pull out due to doping violations.

At the time of the Kenyan trials when he finished fourth, Cheruiyot had a hamstring complaint and was grieving a death in the family.

Cheruiyot has the best time of the year – 3:28.28 in Monaco on July 9 while McSweyn and Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen have jousted through the Diamond League over the last 18 months.

Britain’s Josh Kerr has had a solid season and will be a threat.

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