Stewart bursts eardrum then busts a gut in chase to glory
MARK STEWART burst an eardrum in the sea in Sydney last week. Yesterday he risked wrecking it again as he blew up Brisbane.
The 22-year-old brought the house down in the velodrome in a staggering final track race of the Games, bringing home gold in a gruelling 40km points race.
And it sealed the deal on an incredible 10-medal haul for Team Scotland’s cyclists that left England trailing in their wake and racked up their most successful Games.
A silver for Neah Evans in the women’s 10km scratch race and a gutsy kilo bronze for Olympic champ Callum Skinner, who also climbed off his sickbed to race, set up the perfect finale for the Dundonian who took out the likes of world-class Aussie Cameron Meyer on route to glory.
He said: “It just makes it all the sweeter, to have that calibre of racer riding. I grew up watching Meyer racing.
“I raced against him for the first time at the 2017 Hong Kong worlds and he absolutely ran rings round me.
“I remember coming off thinking, ‘How do you beat that guy?’ I got my answer here. That’s quite cool.
“I’ve surpassed my own expectations here even though I came wanting to do well. But I burst my eardrum a week ago. I did it in the sea, having some fun off Manly beach in Sydney.
“I dived below and it just popped. I was so far out, I started to go dizzy so I swam back in. It has just felt like I’ve had a head cold all week.
“Every day has been getting better and better though.” All the way up to the podium. But Stewart admits he was living proof that no battle plan