The 27-year-old former Scottish sprint champion from West Linton has suffered an injury-plagued few seasons which has seen her drop down the rankings.

But the recently qualified teacher is on the comeback trail.

And she has yet to give up on a place in the Scotland team for Glasgow 2014.

Stacey was due to compete in the 200 and 400 metres in Belgium yesterday (Thursday) and tomorrow (Saturday) she will captain the Scottish Universities team in an international match at Grangemouth.

Before flying to Antwerp, Stacey told us: “Being honest it is a long shot for games selection but I have to keep believing that I can get the 400 time that I need.

“I am in the position where I am having to race myself to fitness which isn’t ideal but I feel I am improving with each race.” Stacey, who teaches PE at schools around Kelso and Earlston, was part of the Edinburgh AC team which competed for Britain at the European Club Championships in Portugal last week.

And she recorded a season’s best of 58 seconds in the one-lap race.

A season’s best 24.9 seconds for the 200 metres was also clocked a fortnight ago at Meadowbank.

But the former British Under 23 champion has to trim her 400 metres time down to below 55 seconds to have a hope of a relay place.

She added: “I had a muscle tear in April which is still bothering me and when I am coming into the home straight of the 400 I can feel a weakness.

“If I can get through that and there isn’t any wind, like there was in Portugal, I should go a bit faster - how much faster, I don’t know.”