European Championships: Proud Laura Muir and emotional Richard Kilty deliver Belgrade gold

Sprinter Philip took the title in 7.06 seconds after Muir had stormed to victory in a championship record time of eight minutes 35.67 seconds yesterday, following Saturday’s 1,500m victory in Belgrade. The victories were Muir’s first two major titles while Philip, who won bronze in the 4x100m relay at the Olympics last year, added to the British medal haul in Serbia.

Team-mate Eilish McColgan claimed third as Muir won by over eight seconds ahead of Turkey’s Yasemin Can.

Muir and Can broke away early before the Scot powered away with 300 metres to go and overcame tiredness to win easily.

Muir said: “I was still awake at 3am. I got to bed quite early but just couldn’t sleep because I was buzzing from the race yesterday. The legs felt okay but definitely quite tired and I got about five or six hours’ sleep.

“Halfway through the race I was thinking ‘I’m feeling a bit tired’, and I was hoping she wasn’t going to ramp it up anymore. I managed to hang in there and knew I had the kick, so I just waited and then I went for it.

“I knew what Can would likely do being an endurance athlete so I needed to kick as much as I could.”

And Muir, who will return to her studies as a vet tomorrow, knows her double will put further pressure on her to succeed.

She said: “You can’t go winning medals and breaking records and not go raising expectations.

“I’ll take it all in my stride. I take it as support, not pressure, and I’ve shown I can deal with it.”

Middlesbrough’s Richard Kilty ran 6.54secs to defend his men’s 60m title after a tense beginning which had seen team-mate Andrew Robertson disqualified for a false start. Kilty won his heat and semi-final and was in imperious form in the final. He dedicated his triumph to his son Richard and fellow sprinters James Ellington and Nigel Levine, who were injured in a motorbike crash on a training camp in Tenerife in January.

The 27-year-old said: “I was feeling a little nervous and I was in the call room and I pulled out a photo of little Richard and I thought to myself, ‘No matter what happens here, I’m going to go home on Monday and he’s going to be smiling’. It made me feel so small and that it’s just another competition and it just took my nerves away. I did it for him, my family, James Ellington and Nigel Levine.

“There were a lot of emotion.”