Ian Stewart MBE

Ian Stewart MBE

Ian Stewart transferred to Birchfield from Small Heath Harriers. His eldest brother, Peter had already blazed the athletics trail with British records at 1 and 2 miles and Ian was to follow at youth and junior level especially over cross-country. Many consider him to be the greatest Birchfield runner of all time

By 1969 he had won the European Indoors 3000m and followed that with European outdoor 5000m title. In 1970, aged 21 he won the 5000m (clip) as a member of the Scottish Commonwealth Games team at Meadowbank and went on to take bronze in a GB vest at the 1972 Munich Olympic 5000m. This turned out to be an epic race, eventually won by Lasse Viren, after the leading group had run the last mile (1600m) in just over 4 minutes.

His training schedule was legendary; long before Birmingham began to open up and celebrate its canals, they were famed as his training ground. Dave Bedford travelled up from London to join him on the towpath before breaking the world 10,000 metres record in 1973. Launching a series of Birmingham canal runs before the 2007 Indoor European Championships, Ian explained: “When I was a kid I used to run through the streets, but then I discovered the canals – in those days I had to climb over a wall – and decided to find out where they led.  I thought if I keep turning left I will eventually end up somewhere in the city that would be familiar.  I eventually got to Five Ways and that became a regular run.  It opened up a completely new highway – no concrete and no traffic”. .

Many memorable battles followed the Munich Olympics, as he challenged himself to reach new heights. At the National road relays in 1973 he predicted “the road is going to burn”, before running a scorching lap to help the club to victory. He was also selected for the next Commonwealth and Olympic Games. Moving up to 10,000m, he set a career best of 27:43 at Crystal Palace and in 1975 he achieved a remarkable double of winning the European indoor 3000m title and the World Cross-country title a week later. In 2013, nearly forty years later, he remains the last British male winner of the latter race.