Seventeen-year-old Jakob Ingebrigtsen became the youngest European champion in history by claiming a shock gold on a night where Britain won four more medals in Berlin, including gold for Matthew Hudson-Smith.

Ingebrigtsen, one of three Norwegian brothers in the men’s 1500m final, did it the hard way by taking the lead with two laps remaining and clinging on for dear life. He was running desperately out of puff towards the finish but just had enough to hold off the fast-finishing Pole Marcin Lewandowski to win in 3:38.10, with Britain’s Jake Wightman taking bronze. But the race was so close and exciting that with 100m remaining there were three Britons and three Norwegians all in contention for gold.

Last year Ingebrigsten became the youngest person to run the mile in under four minutes, aged 16, but his elder brothers Henrik and Filip were expected to be more of a threat in Berlin. Jakob had never previously beaten Filip. And in five previous races against Henrik, Jakob had beaten him just once. Yet while the older Ingebritsens faded into fourth and 12th, Jakob held strong to claim Norway’s second gold medal of these Championships.

“It was a pretty exciting race for people to watch and it was a pretty amazing experience going into the final 100m with us Brits and the three Norwegians attempting to win it,” admitted Wightman. “And if you ran that race 100 times there would be 100 different outcomes.”

Meanwhile there was more joy for Britain as Hudson-Smith comfortably took the men’s 400m title in 44.78 sec ahead of the Borlee twins, Kevin and Jonathan, who claimed silver and bronze. It was Hudson-Smith’s second European title – the first coming four years ago in Zurich – but the victory represented quite a turnaround for the 23-year-old who had considered quitting the sport last year. But while he was at his lowest ebb he decided that he would “randomly pack my bags and head to America” despite not knowing anybody to train with coach Lance Brauman in Clermont, Florida.

Just before these championships he called it the best decision of his life. It certainly looked that way in Berlin – even though he ran out of steam in his last few strides.

“Oh my god,” he said. “I got to the last 50m and my legs had gone! That was crazy; I will never do that again. It feels amazing, but oh my god that lactic – it hurt. But a win’s a win and I’m just happy I got it.”

Earlier in the night there was also a shock bronze medal for Meeghan Beesley, who ran a stormer in the inside lane to come home in 55.31 secs behind the Swiss favourite Lea Sprunger, who took gold in 54.33 - the fastest time in Europe this season. Ukraine’s Anna Ryzhykova was second in 54.51, however Eilidh Doyle could only finish last.

However several other British hopefuls fell short on the night, including Morgan Lake who was seventh in a women’s high jump won by the Russian athlete Mariya Lasitskene. Andy Pozzi was also disappointed after finishing sixth in the 110m hurdles behind the Frenchman Pascal Martinot-Lagarde, who won in 13.17 - 0.002 seconds ahead of the Russian Sergey Shubenkov. Spain’s Orlando Ortego was third.

Britain’s Adele Tracey, Lynsey Sharp and Shelayna Oskan-Clarke also missed out after coming fourth, sixth and eight in the women’s 800m. Tracey was particularly frustrated having just missed out on bronze after running 2:00.86 in a race won by Ukraine’s Nataliya Pryshchepa.

“It was just so agonisingly close,” admitted Tracey. “Hopefully in the future it will just help me position myself better. But that’s championship racing. It’s bitter-sweet.”