Olympic qualifying woe for Harriers star Moira
Cambuslang Harriers athlete Moira Stewart missed out on automatic Olympic qualification by nine seconds on Easter Sunday.
Stewart was one of only five women running in the Swiss Athletics Marathon at Belp and finished third in 2.29.39, narrowly missing out on qualification with the Czech Republic team.
Although Czech born, Moira has run for Harriers in the past, and is a silver and bronze Scottish Cross Country Championship medal winner, as she is the daughter of runner Eddie Stewart.
The race was staged by Swiss Athletics to help some of their athletes and a few non-Swiss guests record an Olympic qualifying time.
From a small field of 18 men and five women, including pacemakers, only five men and four women completed the flat but windy course.
It was Moira’s marathon debut, and Olympic qualifier Stephanie Davis is the only Scottish or UK athlete to have bettered her time this year.
In the previous day, Grant Sheldon finished seventh in the Podium 5k road race at Barrowfield, near Burnley.
Hamilton-born Sheldon, who is based in England, was able to cross boundaries due to the elite athlete exemption.
Grant kept pace with the eventual front two until the 4k mark but fell away and was eventually passed, finishing in a time of 13.55, four seconds slower than his personal best race time.
Such was the quality of the field, however, that the top 10 recorded sub-14 minute times, with winner Tom Mortimer (13.39) one second ahead of runner-up Phil Sesseman (13.40). However, it was good preparation as Sheldon gears up for the European Cup Triathlete event in Spain in a few weeks’time.