SCOTTISH DISTANCE RUNNING HISTORY

Now that the emotional effect of the death of Lachie has died down a bit, it is appropriate to look at what he got up to afterwards. Many/most top internationalists disappear from the public gaze and take very little if any interest in the sport afterwards. Not so Lachie. The picture above gives a hint of what his life was like when he left, the ups and the downs. Read about his life and times after being at the top at this link .

The gentleman in the photograph above is of course Des Gilmore – the word gentleman is used advisedly. A very good timekeeper, secretary and official for Glasgow University Hares & Hounds and secretary of the Dunbartonshire AAA died on Tuesday 1st July. The photograph above is from December 1997 at the farewell to Westerlands Pavilion. With him is Margaret Champion who was president of the University Sports Association. More information when we get it but for those who remember Westerlands fondly as well as for those who never knew it, we tell the story of the venue at this link .

The picture above is from the Victoria Park AAC website announcing the award of honorary life membership of the club to Peter McGregor. You really need to follow this link – https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15TuQ2yefY/ – and read about his remarkable story from his early health difficulties to his career as a very good endurance runner and loyal club servant from 1968 to the present. He has run in more District and National Championships than most and appeared in pretty well all of the traditional road races from 5K to marathon. You need to read this one.

Just one week after adding the item below, we have just heard that Lachie passed away yesterday. More later but for now his profile chronicling his magnificent career can be found at Lachie Stewart When I visited him in Bonhill in 2015 when we were doing the profile, he let me borrow two scrapbooks with photographs and two with some cuttings that he had kept. I have them in the “Galleries” section of www.anentcottishrunning.com The exact addreses are

Photographs: Lachie Stewart’s First Gallery – Anent Scottish Running Lachie Stewart’s Second Gallery – Anent Scottish Running

Cuttings: Lachie Stewart’s Cuttings 1 – Anent Scottish Running Lachie Stewart’s Cuttings 2 – Anent Scottish Running

The Commonwealth & Empire Games of 1970 were held in Scotland at Meadowbank. They were the first major Games to be held in Scotland and they were really started in style when Lachie Stewart won the 10,000m from a star studded field. The Games qualified rankings for the year before the Games are listed above. I recently found that two AW programmes which featured a preview of the Games and a review with reports after them. I’m not sure that they did Lachie justice but I have just reproduced them here and you can see them at this link.