Scottish gold-winning distance runner Stewart dies aged 81

Scottish distance runner Lachie Stewart has died aged 81.

Stewart won 10,000m gold for Scotland at the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh and represented Great Britain at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Born Joseph Laughlin Stewart in Alexandria in 1943, he worked as a dental mechanic.

Stewart was inducted to Scottish Athletics' hall of fame in 2018 and the organisation said: "Everyone at scottishathletics and within our community sends our thoughts at this sad time to Lachie's family and his many friends across the sport."

Scottish Athletics said Stewart died in hospital in Paisley after a short illness.

In 2020, at age 77, he had the lower half of his leg amputated after complications with diabetes.

"I had an ulcer between my second and third toe and it didn't seem to heal too well," he told BBC Scotland at the time.

"It quickly went from that to the doctor saying I can either live with the pain, which was unbelievable, or we can amputate below the knee. I said to him right away to just take the bottom of the leg off because I just couldn't stand the pain.

"Sport makes you more determined. I don't have any hang-ups about losing the leg."