Ian lived in Castlethorpe for a total of 11 years.

1975 Stewart smashes two minute barrier Two outstanding performances by local athletes highlighted a diverse week for Milton Keynes Athletic Club. Fifteen-year-old Ian Stewart broke the two-minute barrier for 800 metres for the first time, and Jack O’Gorman had an outstanding run in the National Veteran’s Cross Country Championships at Perry Barr in Birmingham. To finish ninth in the over 45 age group. Last Wednesday Ian Stewart and 14-year-old Mark Booth traveled to London to take part in a winter athletics meting at Highgate. Running against senior opposition, Ian smashed the two-minute barrier to record 1-58.5 in winning the A race. Former National Schoolboy Champion at 800 metres, Ian was very pleased as he had only just failed to break the barrier on a number of occasions last year.

In between Steve Ovett breaking the British mile record and Brendan Foster running a superb 5,000-metres race, Wolverton’s Ian Stewart emerged as a future star when he won the junior 800-metres race at the Debenham’s Games, last Sunday.
Running against lads three years older than himself in the electrifying atmosphere of the excited 20,000 crowd at Crystal Palace, he kept his head to win in 1 min 54.98 seconds.
This was a personal best by over a second, though Ian was clearly more pleased with the fact that he beat last year’s intermediate boys 800m champion, Julian Spooner.
With the English Schools’ Championships only a week away, Ian must be reasonably hopeful of adding the intermediate title to the junior title he won two years ago.

Milton Keynes Express October 21st 1977 Saluting the new city’s good sports! Athlete Ian wins our award Athletes Milford Callow and Ian Stewart and table tennis starlet Ian Haines are the New Milton Keynes Sports Personalities of the Year. The two Milton Keynes Athletics Club members, and Ian, a member of the AHW Table Tennis Club, each sipped a glass of wine to celebrate winning the awards at the presentation evening at the Open University Theatre last Friday evening. Ian Stewart, 17, won the silver salver donated by the Milton Keynes Express in the over 16 and under 25 year age group.

1977 Ian and Mark are new county champions Milton Keynes Athletics Club played hosts for the Bucks cross country championships, which were held at the Open University last Saturday, and made sure that the visitors didn’t forget the city club, by providing the individual winners of both the boys and youths races, and then going on the win the senior team championships. Milton Keynes could not have hoped for a better start then when Mark Booth, a Newport Pagnell school boy romped home to win the Boy’s race with 60 yds to spare in which over 50 boys took part in the race run over a muddy 2½ mile course. Ian Stewart, unlike Mark Booth, was probably favourite to win the youths, race, and he wasted no time letting the rest of the field know why. Ian took an early lead and only Rooney of Aylesbury was able to keep him in sight. Looking very relaxed throughout the race Ian decided to stretch his legs over the last ½ mile and cruised in 50 yds clear. He now leads the Bucks team at the Inter-Counties championships at Leicester in two week’s time.

1978 County championships at OU venue The Open University will be the venue for the Buckinghamshire Cross-Country Championships on Saturday, with the first race starting at 2p.m.Almost 300 entries have been received for the three races to be held over the surrounding countryside. Thanks to the co-operation of local farmers in the area a really tough course has been devised which includes three ploughed fields on each lap. After the recent floods parts of the course are very boggy, which will benefit the stronger runners. Local runners have excellent prospects in each of the championships. In the boys race over 2½ miles. Mark Booth must stand a chance of a placing in the first three as he has shown excellent form all winter. With the support of Mark Taylor, Mark Duthie, Guy Johnson, Robert Hughes, Gary Little and Andrew Higgins, Milton Keynes Ac should do well in the team events. The hottest favourite for any of the three races must be Ian Stewart in the 3¼ miles youth’s championship. Provided he can shake off a touch of flu over the Christmas period he should dominate the field.

Post Echo July 30th 1979 Brighton 1979 Luton’s Ian Stewart leads international athlete Steve Ovett (left) in the 1500 metres.

Ian Stewart, the brilliant middle distance runner from Wolverton who recorded 3.44 for the 1,500 m in this year, left England last week to take up a four-year medical scholarship at the University of Oklahoma.
A former pupil at the Radcliffe School, Ian had a difficult choice to make between two American universities, Houston and Oklahoma, and a career in medicine at Birmingham University. The temptation of an all-fees-paid education in the States proved too strong to resist.
Although initially offered a sports scholarship Ian sensibly insisted that his academic interests must come first. As the medical school agreed to give him a scholarship based on his A-level results this appeared to be the best solution.
Latest reports are that he is settling down well in the hot, dry climate where the first semester has already started. The cross country season, which runs from September to December, should give him a fairly gentle introduction to American athletics.

Milton Keynes’ Olympic hopeful Ian Stewart has returned home to Wolverton just three months after leaving for America.
The scholarship at Oklahoma State University would have enabled Ian, whose aim is to qualify for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles to study for a career in medicine.
However, Ian, of Longville, Old Wolverton, soon found out that things were not quite as he expected.
He learned he had to do four years of preliminary study before going to medical school and this would have meant going over ground he had already covered in his studies at the Radcliffe School.
He also found out that after this four year period, he and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Stewart would have to pay out around £3,500 a year for five years.
Ian left for Oklahoma on August 23 with eight ‘O’ levels and ‘A’ level passes in Maths, chemistry and biology under his belt.
He arrived at the University the next day but was soon to find that his ‘A’ level passes were of no use.
With his examination passes Ian could have gone straight into medical school in this country but in the USA students need four years of preliminary study.
“If I had wanted to do medicine in the USA it was going to take me nine years to go all through the training,” explained Ian.
“They did not recognize my ‘A’ Levels and I was only allowed to stay on the scholarship for four years.
“After this everything would have had to have been paid by my parents.”
Ian found the going tough on the sports field too.
When he arrived the temperature was 97 degrees and he found the training sessions very hard indeed.
“I became dehydrated and we were told to drink a lot after each run.
“I was both physically and mentally drained after each training session in the USA.” Said Ian.
“Although I was only out there for three months I feel I have benefitd enormously from the experience,” he said.
This experience will no doubt come in useful in the future, but what of the future?
Ian since returning, has decided against medicine and now plans a course in micro-biology at a university in England.
While at university he hopes to return to North Bucks as frequently as possible for training with Hartwell coach Jack Cox, himself a former Milton Keynes AC runner.
The track season begins in April and Ian is confident of recording a sub four-minute mile this year.
He is aiming to reach the last ten I the final Olympic trails and, although he does not expect to be going to Moscow in the summer, he is keeping his fingers crossed that he will be traveling to the 1984 Olympics.
Already Ian, who is first claim member of the Luton AC and second claim for the Milton Keynes AC, has an impressive list of results on the track behind him.
He became the English Schools 800m champion and holds the youth national record for the 1,500m.
He also occasionally runs in 3,00m events and he was ranked number one (youth) in the United Kingdom in 1977/78.
He has been a junior men’s Great Britain representative at 1,500m and holds various county championships.
His best performance came last season when representing the South of England at Crystal Palace. He recorded 3m 44s for the 1,500m and this time is equivalent to a 4m 1s mile.

1983 John & Sylvia with Ian at the University of Kent - Canterbury, after he had received his BSC degree in micro-biology

Milton Keynes Gazette March 14th 1980

Six get awards for excellence

Wolverton athlete Ian Stewart has realized his dream of running a sub four-minute mile.
Representing Bucks in the Inter-Counties Championship at Birmingham, the 19-year-old middle-distance runner smashed through the magical barrier by over a second.
The race televised by BBC’s Grandstand programme on Monday, brought a fast lap of 57 seconds but from there three relatively even laps were run.
Stewart was well placed at the bell, reached in 2m 59 and apart from being baulked by Chris Sly down the back straight he was able to finish strongly.
Coming off the final bend in fourth place Stewart accelerated past Barry Smith and only just failed to catch old rival Steve Flint, of Northants at the line.
Stewarts time of 3m 58.9 realised an ambition he had nursed for the past five years, while Flint’ 3m 58.7 was also his first sub four-minute mile.
It was only Stewart’s second race over the distance this year, so he has high hopes of an even faster time during the summer.

Ipswich - Ian Stewart (No. 2) in the lead

East Anglian Daily Times, Monday, December 29, 1980

ROUND THE TOWN' RACES

Large crowd sees Ian Stewart take the title

Great Britain international athlete Ian Stewart, the 20 year-old student from Luton stormed homes to win the fourth ‘Round the Town’ race in Ipswich yesterday.
Stewart, one of three sub four-minute milers in the field, followed in the footsteps of Brendan Foster, Tony Simmons and Steve Ovett as winner of one of the most prestigious road-running events in the British calendar (writes Ron Jones).
The event, which was organised and sponsored by the Southern Counties AAA, with additional help from the Ipswich Borough Council Recreation and Amenities Department and Ipswich Harriers attracted another large crowd to the town centre.
There was a carnival atmosphere as the spectators witnessed an enthralling battle between six of the leading distance runners in the country, who soon broke away from the rest of the field.
The group included Olympic 1500 metres finalist Steve Cram, from Jarrow, who was obviously suffering from his lack of training during the past five weeks. Cram slipped back during the latter stages of the race, and eventually finished fifth.

Also in the leading bunch was Ipswich’s Nigel Allison but the effects of a recent foot injury forced him to retire after three miles of the four-and-a-half mile race.
With two of the six laps to go, Stewart led from Steve Flint, of Northampton, with Havering’s Paul Bettridge in third spot and Graham Payne of Southend, a former winner of the Suffolk open 10-mile championship, in fourth place.
Stewart began to pull away from Flint and was no doubt seeking revenge for his beating by Flint in this year’s inter-counties one mile track championship at Birmingham, when both runners cracked the four minute barrier.
Flint, the former Thetford runner, who finished sixth in the Ipswich event last year, could make no impression on Stewart in the closing stages, and Stewart went on th win in a time of 21 minutes 10 seconds.
As the course was slightly longer than in previous years, no comparison can be drawn with Steve Ovett’s record time of 18.56 for the old course.

Daily Mail, Wednesday, April 29, 1981

Steve Ovett goes for a hat-trick of road race victories in Oslo this Sunday when he competes with
Ian Stewart and Steve Flint for an England team against Norway over eight kilometres.

Los Angeles Times Monday, September 14, 1981

Track
INTERNATIONAL MEETS
At Oslo
MEN; 800 – 1. Cram (Britain, 1.46.20, 2. Hillardt (Australia) 1.47.27, 3. I. Stewart (Britain), 3.39.27

Gazette, December 4, 1981

IAN SCORES FIRST LOCAL WIN

Record entry for the Wolverton five

The ANNUAL five-mile race around the streets of Wolverton provided its first local winner on Saturday in Ian Stewart.
Ian, representing the Invicta club of Kent where he is currently studying at university, finished 12th last year but this time his through preparation before the event paid off handsomely.
The race, which attracted a record entry of 530 starters, was sponsored by Taylors Estate Agents – and it was Ian Whittle, himself a top junior athlete ten year ago and now a director with the company who got the huge field away.
As the long colourful procession hurried along Stratford Road a small group detached itself at the front and passing halfway in 11m 30s were Billy Dee (Luton), Dick Milne (Notts), and Ian Stewart with club-mate Mike Gratton (Invicta).
Further back the expected duel for the first MKAC runners seemed on as Gerard Copps (12m 09s) led Simon Rayner by a few seconds.
Dee and Milne tried a break with half a mile to go but this was covered by Stewart who himself then broke with 400 metres remaining to cross the line a comfortable winner in 23m 24s. This was the fastest time recorded on the course.

Another race which brought the home crowd to their feet was the 3,000 metres, where Ian Stewart, a Canterbury student who came in as a reserve, outsprinted the American champion, Paul Cumming, in the last 30 metres in 7mins. 56.03sec. Stewart has to live in the spectre of his namesake a former European indoor champion at the distance, but this one is not bad either.

Emsley Carr Mile – 2nd to Dave Moocrft.
Golden League 3000 mtrs in Oslo, won by Nyam Bui in a new world record of 7 mins 44.1 sec. 2nd Steve Ovett 3rd Ian Stewart
Ian was 5th in the Golden Mile in Oslo in a time of 3 mins 54.1 sec.
Ian was 5th in an invitation Mile in Koblenz in a time of 3 mins. 53 sec.
Ian represented England, in the Commonwealth Games, which were held October 1982 in Brisbane, Australia.

Thirty-eight willing souls slithered about in three miles of mud on Wednesday, November 19, in the name of sport. The event was the University’s first home cross-country race of the season, and the home team ran out easy winners of the day.
The course – two laps of fiendishly slippery and twisting countryside – was well designed by club captain Lawrence Simmons, who finished sixteenth in the race. Ahead of him were five other University runners, with another three behind. First of the home runners was first year biologist Ian Stewart, who won the race.
Connoisseurs of the noble sport of athletics will be familiar with the name of Ian Stewart, for an excellent Birmingham runner of that name was European and Commonwealth 500 metre champion 10 years ago, and collected a bronze medal in the Munich Olympics. The U.K.C. version of this name alone is much younger, more compact, faster and altogether more talented! Ian twice ran under four minutes for a mile during the summer (and there are not many people who have done that), and was the tenth faster British “miler” of 1980. Tenth is not a bad position in an event and country where the list is headed by a certain Mr. Ovett from Brighton, followed by a Mr. Coe from Sheffield!
Third in the race was the older and decidedly less talented Martin Knapp, followed closely by Des O’Donnell, second year lawyer. There can be few people on campus less like a leprechaun, but Des’s Irish pedigree showed through the mud. Despite splashing his immaculate kit with mud and other substances, Des was pleased with his race. Sixth was University debutant John Searl, another first year biologist. John has been laying low this term, but his strength and determination clearly indicate a great deal of athletic talent. The other four University competitors were also first years _ Graeme Baldock, Pete Bowen, Mark Dutton and Bob Ruszkowski – which bodes well for the future.
The race was superbly organised by Paul Wilson, the club secretary currently sidelined by injury.

Athletics Weekly April 23rd 1983 Bob Lunnon took off on stage 10 with a none second advantage over Haringey and extended it to a 58 second lead over Invicta’s Cliff Wood by the end, with the fastest leg time coming from Julian Goater who moved Shaftesbury up to fifth. But with Martin Knapp’s 24:59 on stage 11 reducing the deficit at the front to 18 seconds, a real battle looked on between Ian Logan and Ian Stewart on the final short stage. Last year Stewart equaled Steve Ovett’s record of 14;52, and while not in record-breaking form this year, his 15:20 was the fastest of the day and brought him home 19 seconds clear of the Aldershot anchorman.

July 1983

JUST THE JOB FOR TOP RUNNER IAN

By Stan Szecowka

Top athlete Ian Stewart plans to be a front runner in the world of shop management. For Ian one of Britain’s gold medal running hopes is to sell rather than wear track suits as the new general manager of the Don Coleman Sports Shop in Queensway, Bletchley. During office hours… that is!
For soon he will be going into full training to start battling alongside Seb Coe and Steve Ovett for track honours.
He is shortly due to move to the nearby village of Hartwell with his new bride, Clair, into a house just 200 yards from where his coach John Cox lives.
During the summer months he will be in full flight, running, 100 miles around Salcey Forest each week.
The former Wolverton schoolboy hopes to improve on his world ranking placing of 11th in the 3,000 metres and 14th in the mile.
Fresh from finishing micro-biology BSC finals at the University of Kent, Ian said: “I have been very busy studying in recent months but plan to start racing again in a month’s time, probably at Crystal Palace.
“This year is really about preparation for the next Olympics, and making a success of my new career.”

Milton Keynes Express July 7, 1983

Marathon men set to run for fun

International runners Ian Stewart and Mike Gratton will be keeping track of the lighter side of the sport in Milton Keynes.
For they will be joining in the Woughton Centre Fun Run on July 31, when the fit and not-so-fit join together for a two-and-a-half mile circular run on the Redways.
The pair promise not to sprint off into the distance. Mike, 28, won the London Marathon this year and Ian, 22, has a world ranking of 11th in the 3,000 metres and 14th in the mile.

They both completed in the last Commonwealth Games.
Mike, who lives in Canterbury, is staying in the city. On Saturday he will be making a promotional visit to the Don Coleman Sports shop in Bletchley, where Ian has just taken over as general manager.
Ian, who lives at Hartwell, Northants, explained: “I heard about the Fun Run and thought it would make a nice change to join in, and with Mike here it might attract a few more people along.”
And on a more serious note, Ian starts his bid to beat the best this Sunday in the Inter Counties 800 metres race at Leicester – his first competitive race for nine months.

Gazette August 5, 1983

IAN CHASES OLYMPIC DREAM

Local international athlete Ian Stewart aims to step up from middle distance running to 5,000m in a bid to gain Olympic medal.
Ian plans to make the change later this year so he is ready for the event in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
It will mean an even more grueling winter training schedule than normal for Ian, who will now have to undertake some 1,000 miles a week in roadwork.
But the thought of competing in the world’s biggest sporting carnival will spur him on during those cold, dark, frosty mornings.
Ian has already represented England in the Commonwealth Games 1500m. But with the likes of a fully-fit Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett, Steve Cram and Graham Williamson around his hopes of gaining selection for the Olympic blue riband event seem slim.
Ian said: “I think my best chance of qualifying lies in the 5,000m. It’s a bit early to switch completely at the moment but gradually I’ll change over.
“I would say my hopes of taking part in the Olympics are realistic.
“But I don’t see it as Just a question of going out there. There is no point in even going unless you’ve got a chance of doing really well.”
Ian can pick up a few useful tips about longer distance running from someone who should know about it London marathon winner Mike Gratton.
The two became close friends at university, where Ian was a student and Mike a lecturer.
Last week Mike came up to Bletchley to do some promotional work for the shop Ian now manages, Don Coleman Sports.

November 26th 1983 Two-up for Olympic man Ian Olympic hopeful Ian Stewart won the Wolverton”5” road race on Saturday for the second time. The Wolverton man who now represents Invicta clocked 23 mins. 39 secs.

Mirror, Thursday, December 1, 1983

They’re all good sports - but where’s the cash for our young athletes?

By Steve Brennnan

Last week Cathy Goddard’s promising career as an international Septathlete lay in ruins.
A simple clerical blunder at County Hall in Aylesbury had left Cathy’s mother Ann Brown, herself a former athletics coach, clean out of cash with no way of keeping her daughter in top-class training at Crystal Palace.
This week Cathy’s problems were solved when Milton Keynes Chamber of Commerce stepped in and offered her a post which would allow her to continue with both her athletic training and her secretarial career.
But Cathy Goddard is one of the lucky ones.

Sports authorities in the city freely admit that the best athletes in Milton Keynes may never reach their true potential, simply because of lack of cash.
Brian Graves, secretary of the Milton Keynes Athletics Club, said: “I am sure some of the athletes we have at the moment could make it to Olympic standard.
“But if they have no cash, or their parents have no cash, they won’t make it. There is a limit to what the local councils can give. Frankly, it is not enough.”
One of the prime examples is Ian Stewart. At present Ian, who lives in Wolverton and works in Bletchley, is hard in training preparing himself for next year’s Olympics in the 3,000 or 5,000m event.
And yet his hopes of qualifying hinge on cash. He said: “If I went along to the Olympic trials with all the back-up that I need, and that costs money, I would go into the trial very confident indeed of qualifying.

“If I go along as \i am just now, hoping that everything will hang together, I wouldn’t expect to qualify. It would be very touch-and-go if I did.”
He also needs to train at altitude in preparation for the Olympics, for which he is still determined to qualify.
His request for help to train in Portugal was turned down flat by the Sports lottery Fund in Milton Keynes.

Gazette, December 2, 1983 SIMON FOLLOWS IAN’S LEAD Double delight for local runners The 19th annual running of the Wolverton five-mile race on Saturday proved to be a triumph for two local young men. Olympic hope Ian Stewart, the pre-race favourite, strode away to secure his second victory in three years. While Simon Rayner ran the race of his life to follow him home in second place. The race sponsored by Taylors Estate Agents, attracted a field of 400 runners – six of them breaking away to pass the halfway point in 11.50. Stewart who hails from Wolverton but runs for the Invicta Club in Kent, gradually wore down the chasing group to cross the line first in 23.39.

Ian, was selected for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, but during his preparation for this, Ian unfortunately picked up a debilitating virus, while he was training in Portugal. He became very ill and this proved to be the end of his international athletic career.

Ian then concentrated on his business career. He has run the London Marathon and several other races to raise money for MK SNAP (Special Needs Advancement Project) of which he is Chairman of the Board of Trutees.