Olympic Marathon Trials
London
Steph comes up roses in Kew Gardens
Photos by Mark Shearman
‘Late bloomer’ is flower of Scotland
A
thletics in Scotland has been very fortunate in recent years to celebrate a number of British champions – indoors and outdoors and even across disciplines beyond track and field.
as a club runner - not among the elite - and finished in 2:32:38. Seven months later, in Valencia, Spain, she finished in 2:27:40 to get inside the Olympic qualifying standard asked by British Athletics.
Few have topped the podium as unheralded as Steph Davis, however.
In 2020 she only managed two races, a park run, and a half-marathon which she completed in 71:14. Then came that a victory in the trials which suddenly grabbed the headlines.
The London-based Scot tasted track action with VP-Glasgow some 15 years ago and then competed for Edinburgh Uni Hare and Hounds in cross country. Ten years ago, Steph was third at the Scottish Unis XC a few months after finishing 126th in the National XC at Falkirk. Fast forward a few years and a surprise performance in a ‘fun run’ Berlin marathon saw her take the first steps that culminated in victory at Kew Gardens in London to clinch her place with GB and NI at the Olympics. As Stuart Weir of RunBlogRun put it: ‘is a Cinderella story, an athlete of immense talent who only took up the discipline three years ago.’ That first marathon was in Berlin 2018 when she ran 2:41:16. In 2019 she ran London
10
PB 2021 | ISSUE 1
At school, she recalls running against Lynsey Sharp in the 800m in Scottish Schools events. Invariably, Lynsey was first and Steph last – if the latter’s memory serves. ‘I was one of the best runners in my school - I wasn’t terrible but I was never on the podium at the national level,’ she recalled. ‘At that stage, I never thought about getting to this level.
That just shows that everyone’s journey is different and if you put in the hard work when the time is right for you, it can happen. ‘It wasn’t until recent years when I started chipping away at the marathon time that I realized there was something there, over the longer distance. ‘I started to think about the Olympics after I had run 2:32 in London in 2019 because it showed that I wasn’t so far off the Olympic standard. And when I was preparing for Valencia (December 2019) that was very much at the forefront of my mind.
