As sporting genetics go, Kelsey Stewart has struck it lucky.
Representing Scotland at the Commonwealth Games would normally be enough to seal all the honours on family sports day but Stewart thinks otherwise.
On her mother’s side of the family, her cousin is footballer Ryan Gauld, who moved from Dundee United to Sporting Lisbon four years ago.
Stewart went out to Portugal in September to see him score his first goal for loan club Aves.
But the football connection does not end there. Scott Howie, who played as a goalkeeper for Norwich City and Motherwell, is a second cousin on her father’s side.
Stewart said: “It’s quite good having someone else in the family who’s good at sport – but I’m never going to be the quickest.
“My dad and my brother have been out to watch Ryan a few times. I sometimes get to see him when he’s back home.”
Stewart, from Stonehaven, laid the foundations of her success in the north-east, where she trains with Ken and Joyce Hogg at Aberdeen Athletics Club. It has been a boom time for the club, with Stewart and team-mate Zoey Clark both representing Scotland Down Under.
The last time two members of the club competed at the same global event was back in 1990 at the Commonwealth Games in Auckland when Mark Davidson and Duncan Mathieson were part of the 4x400m relay team that won silver for Scotland.
Stewart said: “Zoey and I have both come through the club from a young age and they’ve seen our progression year on year. People think we train together but we’re in different groups; she’s a more explosive runner than I am. The 800m is more my event.
“But when we go over there we’ll spend a lot of time together and I’ll be learning from her.”
Stewart enjoyed an impressive 2017 to help earn selection for the Games. She won gold in the England Athletics under-23 championships and the Scottish seniors in the individual 400m, with a relay gold alongside Clark coming in the Loughborough International. Their form as a team this season lends one to approach the Games with a degree of hope that come the second week of the Games, the Carrara Stadium will see a Scottish team on the podium.
Stewart said: “I can take so much from this experience and I’m really lucky to have the chance to go. There are so many athletes that try so hard to make it. I want to take as much as I can from the Games and who knows, hopefully make a couple more in the future.”
