eilidh child was resigned to her fate as the second-best 400 metres hurdler in the Commonwealth at Hampden Park last night, accepting her second consecutive silver medal with characteristic grace.
Child and Kaliese Spencer were far away the standout athletes in the final but the Jamaican was, true to form, a second quicker than the home heroine and won in 54.10 secs, with Child timing 55.02.
The Bath-based Perth woman embraced her fiance, family and friends before doing a lap of honour with the Saltire wrapped around her, the poster girl of Glasgow 2014 basking in some hard-earned acclaim.
"My first emotion is relief," said Child afterwards. "It was a nervous couple of days.
"I will cherish this silver medal because I'm happy with the way I performed. It wasn't the fastest race I've run but there was a lot of expectation and I've coped with that. I always said I can't control what other people can do - that's the reality in sport.
"I tried to shut out the crowd a bit beforehand and concentrate on what I had to do. Afterwards it was amazing and the lap of honour was something very special."
Child's moment arrived after Lynsey Sharp overcame nerves of her own to reach tonight's final of the 800m, but Scotland's performer of the day was undoubtedly Dan Keatings, the gymnast who added gold on the pommel horse to the two silver medals he had already accumulated.Keatings' victory made him the most decorated Games gymnast in Scottish history and allowed him to draw level with Dan Wallace at the top of the team medal table.
"You had Louis Smith and Max [Whitlock] . . . the gold could have gone to any one of us, but I put in the best routine I could do and glad I came out on top," said Keatings.
Dan Purvis added bronze on the rings, and Alex Gladkov won Scotland's second bronze in wrestling.
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