WHEN the undisputed greatest of all time says you are the future of running, there is an undeniable pressure that comes with that.
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The anointed one, Stewart McSweyn, also has an incredible chance to keep stepping up and showing his worth.
If people did not realise the former Eureka runner's potential by now, surely they will with a Eliud Kipchoge ringing endorsement this past month.
The world athletics landscape continues to be in uncharted territory of sorts in the wake of a delayed Olympics.
That four-year cycle to five-ring fever has been shortened to a build-up to Paris in three.
For Australians - and Kenyans like Kipchoge - the Commonwealth Games is about 10 months away.
Pressure to improve and be in top form is more acute with seemingly less time for our elite athletes to have time to recharge.
So far, McSweyn appears to have taken this all in his stride.
Before Tokyo 2020 was postponed a year, the former Ballarat Clarendon College student was building an impressive Olympic run-up. McSweyn had become the first man in more than two decades to win a Zatopek:10 title hat-trick - the last man to do so was Ballarat's Steve Moneghetti in 1989.
In capturing the 2019 Australian 10,000-metre title, McSweyn broke the national record with a run of 27 minutes, 23.80 seconds.
McSweyn already had 5000m and 1500m qualifications for Tokyo at this stage, but also went out and captured national records in the 1500m and 3000m in the IAAF Diamond League.
Then finished the year with the fastest mile on Australian soil, and the world's fastest for the year, in the tiny town of Penguin in his home state Tasmania.
That was all 2020 and McSweyn still had to find a way to keep pace on a prolonged road to Tokyo where he raced a bold 1500m final, finishing seventh.
And Tokyo was not the finale.
McSweyn carried his strong form to finish out the IAAF Diamond League season then push his race to a top-10 finish in the renowned Great North Run half-marathon in London.
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Kipchoge says he keeps watch on McSweyn's progress.
He told Fairfax Media McSweyn was the future for 800m, 1500m, mile, 3000m, 5000m and "even 10,000m".
"But in the next 10 years after that, McSweyn can make a big transition to the road - to the 15km, to the half-marathon and even to the marathon," Kipchoge said. "He is the future."
Those are big shoes to fill.
McSweyn was part of a pacing team - also featuring Ballarat's Collis Birmingham and Eureka runner Brett Robinson - to help Kipchoge become the first man to run a sub-two hour marathon experiment in 2019.
He had a front row seat to history but also a little taste of what it takes to be the best.
Who knows what The Future will serve up in the future but if the greatest runner of all time thinks he has good what it takes, particularly in unprecedented times, there is an exciting road ahead for McSweyn.
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