LAST Saturday, Australia’s Mixed 2 km Relay team, Stewart McSweyn, Abbey Caldwell, Oliver Hoare, Jessica Hull, raced into Australian athletics history taking the bronze medal behind Kenya and Ethiopia at the 44th World Athletics Cross Country Championships.
More than 400 athletes from around the world descended on Mount Panorama in Bathurst to compete in what is called the “world’s greatest foot race.”
This was the first time the event was held in Australia. Under immense pressure competing on home soil, the Australian team led from the front as the best world athletics battled the terrain, early scorching temperatures, humidity and finished in dramatic thunderstorms. It’s a race that tests endurance. speed. agility, toughness and strategy.
The Kenyans took gold running 23:14s and regained the mixed relay title and avenged their title defeat four years ago in Denmark. Ethiopia clocked 23:21s for silver and Australia 23:26s – five seconds behind silver (Ethiopia) and 12-seconds behind gold (Kenya).
The Australian quartet all secured their first World Championships medal and agreed that while there was a lot of pressure and expectations on the now named “Dream Team,” having a home crowd cheering lifted their performances.
As professional individual runners, there is not much opportunity to run as a team and they called for World Athletics to create more team events. “No world medal is just given to you, you have to work hard for it,” team leader Oliver Hoare said after the event.
“We wear the guernsey with pride and we all executed good races,” King Island running hero, Stewart McSweyn told Athletics Australia.
“To compete with the powerhouses of Ethiopia and Kenya hopefully puts Australia on the map and shows that we are part of the ‘big-three’ of distance running now.”