McSweyn out of 1500m, shifts focus to 5,000 metre event

UPDATE: McSweyn finished 12th in his repechage heat with a time of 3.37:49, and will now switch focus to the 5,000 metre event on Wednesday.

EARLIER: King Island's Stewart McSweyn will run in the 1500 metre repechage tonight after a disappointing result in his heat.

MsSweyn lead for the first half of his heat, but as the pace quickened became "boxed-in" and he was unable to get a clear run to the finish line.

 He ultimately finished in 11th place with a time of 3:36.55 in a bunch finish with the winner recording 3:35.21.

For first time in Olympic history, ‘repechage’ rounds have been added to short and middle-distance running events on the track. 

Each of those events is classically structured as round one, semi final, final. Now the repechage round is added after round one and is competed by all non-automatic qualifiers from the first heats.

Historically, the Olympics has had a ‘fastest loser’ system for qualification, meaning that after the automatic places were settled from the heats, the fastest times from the non-automatic qualifiers would go through. 

The repechage round gives runners who don’t run their best race in the opening round another opportunity to race and progress. 

Stewart's repechage event is at 315am AEST tonight.