Eilidh Child’s heroics in Gothenburg have made her the first Scot in track and field history to win two medals for Great Britain in one day.
The Kinross-shire athlete clinched a silver in the European Indoor Championship 400m, followed by a gold in the relay.
She has now set her sights on making the final of her main event, the 400m hurdles, in the summer World Championships.
Director of coaching at scottishathletics, Stephen Maguire, believes the former Perth Grammar School PE teacher has given herself the perfect platform to do just that.
He said: “To medal at any major championships is a magnificent achievement, so congratulations to Eilidh on her efforts in Sweden.
“She started out on an indoor season with a series of targets and things to work on, and her speed over the flat 400m has developed over the past couple of months.
“She has set another Scottish indoor record with a new personal best, and done so in the final so that fits well with the idea that athletes should aim to ‘perform on the day’ when in major competition.”
Meanwhile, her dad Ronnie Child said Eilidh’s first significant medal came almost exactly 13 years ago in cross country.
He said: “Eilidh was a very good cross country runner. She won races at primary level and was East District champion one year.
“If you check the record books about 13 years ago she was second in the National Cross Country at Under-13 level.”
It is only since Eilidh moved to Bath ahead of last year’s Olympics that she became a full-time athlete, and Ronnie admits there was a time when she was nearly lost to track and field.
He said: “Eilidh is a modest girl and she didn’t even tell her flatmates she had ambitions of being a high-class athlete.
“They actually said later they would have helped her and encouraged her more if only they had known. Like many youngsters she had been used to being taken to the track, used to having meals made and used to being ferried to events.
“I feel sorry for those who do drop out who may be talented young athletes. Laura Muir (another Kinross-shire runner in Sweden) is handling that side well because she is on one of the toughest university courses around in vet medicine.
“Then Eilidh was teaching and she had to juggle a job with training. I think sometimes people do forget a number of top Scottish athletes are not full-time professionals.
“We were delighted, though, when the chance to move to Bath and work with Malcolm Arnold came up. If Malcolm isn’t the best in the world then he must be very close when you look at the record and the people he has worked with.
“Eilidh is staying with a family in Bath and is almost part of that family now, and the training group is good they all get on very well with top male and female athletes.
“It is helping her to be the best she can be and as a father that’s all you can ask of your daughter.”
Ronnie has travelled the world watching Eilidh but for Sunday’s finals it was a gathering of the clan in Kinross.
“Sunday was definitely a bit hectic and emotional in the Child household,” he said.
“We had all Eilidh’s family over for the day her sisters, her aunties we were all around the television. I am always a nervous wreck on these occasions while my wife Gill manages to keep her cool a bit more.
“The first race was so exciting and to get another Scottish record and a European silver medal thrilled us all.
“Eilidh managed to call home between the race and the medal presentation and we all had a wee word of congratulations and encouragement. Then it was the long wait until the relay at 5.30pm.
“We were a wee bit more relaxed about that until Eilidh was on the track, that is.”