On a bawdy night on the boards Katarina Johnson-Thompson delivered the fourth major title of her career at the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow, shattering two pentathlon championship records on the way to claiming another brilliant gold medal. Yet she was left ruing what might have been as a world record slipped through her fingers again.

Laura Muir also had the Emirates Arena rocking with another British gold in the 3,000m but Johnson-Thompson’s performance left a deeper impression given she was up on Nataliya Dobrynska’s world record of 5,013 points after three of the five events.

Alas in the long jump, so often her bête noire, she fouled twice and produced a leap far below her best. That pretty much ended her chances of a record but she blasted round the track in the 800m to end with 4,983 points – the fourth best performance of all time.

“It’s not the world record but the world record is the world record for a reason,” said Johnson-Thompson afterwards. “You can’t afford any mistakes – it’s very high-level stuff. Unfortunately it wasn’t there but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the moment.”

It was a far cry from four years ago in Prague, when Johnson-Thompson produced the second best pentathlon performance ever but ended up in tears because she had missed out on the world record. At 26 she is growing up fast – which bodes well for next year’s Olympics.

“I’m very proud of my performance,” added Johnson-Thompson. “It sounds stupid because I’m 26 now but I’m still learning all the time. I’m really excited for the summer.”

The 19-year-old Niamh Emerson looks to be the latest in the production line of great British multi-eventing talent after claiming a surprise silver with 4,731 points.

Astonishingly Emerson had personal bests in all five events to become the first under-20 athlete ever to score over 4,700 points in the event. The French athlete Solene Ndama took bronze on 4,723.

Throughout the day Johnson-Thompson was cheered on by 15 of her friends and family who came up from Liverpool in a minibus dressed in red ‘Team KJT’ hoodies on with ‘She’s strong, she’s cool, she comes from Liverpool’ on them.

She immediately got those fans up on their feet with a season’s best of 8.27 seconds in the 60m hurdles before following it with a pentathlon high jump championship record of 1.96m.

Next up was the shot, Johnson-Thompson’s worst event, but a personal best of 13.15m earned her 737 points and left her on 2,989 after the morning session.

Now her world record hopes rested on the long jump, an event in which she is capable of 6.95m at her best. However she fouled her first attempt, jumped 6.53m after being 14.5cm behind the board and then fouled again.

It left Johnson-Thompson on 4,006 points, and needing a personal best in the final event, the 800m, to break the world record. How the popular Liverpudlian tried, pushing herself through halfway on schedule before finishing in a heap on the track after running 2:09.13.

Laura Muir passes Konstanze Klosterhalfen of Germany on the way to 3,000m gold. Photograph: Petr David Josek/AP

Then it was time for Muir to take on the young German Konstanze Klosterhalfen over 3,000m in an event that many had billed as the race of the championships.

The crowd had already had a glimpse of Muir earlier in the night, with the Scot winning her 1500m heat in 4:09.29 - in a race that was a little choppier and quicker than she would have liked. The question was how much it had taken out of her – something Klosterhalfen was determined to find out. After 1,200m of sparring she launched an attack that scattered much of the field. However Muir was not going anywhere.

The German has kicked on impressively since joining Alberto Salazar’s Nike Oregon Project at the end of 2017. But she was unable to shake her off and Muir launched an astonishing attack at the bell to win by 20 metres in a championship record of8 min 30.62 sec – over three seconds clear of Klosterhalfen in silver, with Britain’s Melissa Courtney taking bronze in a personal best of 8:38.22

It means the 25-year-old Muir has achieved the first leg of a ‘double double’ of 3,000m and 1500m gold medals in successive championships.

“I knew I can’t lose it here - this is my home turf, my home track,” said Muir, who will run in the 1500m final. “I had to try to hang on and then trust my kick. Luckily I’ve got that in my armoury.”