Laura Muir has waited all her career for a medal at a major championships. Now, after so much heartbreak and frustration, two shiny gold ones have arrived at once.

European Indoor Athletics: Laura Muir breaks 1500m record to win gold Read more

The 23-year-old veterinary student was again Britain’s lodestar as she added the 3,000m title to her 1500m triumph on Saturday to become only the second UK athlete after Colin Jackson to win two European Indoor titles at the same event.

There was also gold for Asha Philip in the women’s 60m, as well as silver for Lorraine Ugen, Shalane Oskan-Clarke Robbie Grabarz and the women’s 4x400m team, as Britain equalled its best performance at the European Indoor Championships with 10 medals.

However, the day – and these championships – belonged to Muir. Such was the adrenaline flowing through her veins after winning her first title on Saturday that she did not sleep until 3am. She was also galloping on weary legs, having already raced three times in two days. Yet such was the striking way she took out the European 5,000m and 10,000m champion Yasemin Can you would never have guessed.

Muir stayed on Can’s shoulder until 300m to go before powering away to win in 8.35.67 – a championship record. Can was second, nearly eight seconds back, while Britain’s Eilish McColgan came from the gods to sneak a well‑deserved bronze in 8.47.43.

“I got to bed quite early but just couldn’t sleep because I was buzzing from Saturday,” Muir said. “I was definitely quite tired and halfway through the race I was hoping she wasn’t going to ramp it up any more. But I managed to hang in there and then went for it.”

Muir now owns five British and two European records at distances ranging from 1,000m to 5,000m, but she now plans to go global. After confirming her plans to double up in the 1500m and 5,000m at the world championships in London this summer, she said: “You can’t go winning medals and not go raising expectations. I’ll take it all in my stride. I’ve shown I can deal with the pressure.”

For now, though, her thoughts are on her next veterinary placement. “I start at surgery on Tuesday morning,” she said. “I’ve had messages from the vets who are good friends. We’ll have a good laugh when I arrive.”

A delighted McColgan, the daughter of the former 10,000 world champion Liz, was also happy with her performance – but was not sure whether her mother would feel the same way. “My mum, dad and boyfriend are going to go absolutely mental,” she said. “I came third but the way I run it makes them very nervous. But to come away with a medal is great.”

Philip was just as ecstatic after setting a British record of 7.06sec to become the first British woman to win the European 60m title since Bev Lynch in 1984. The 26‑year‑old has endured a number of injuries and near-misses at major championships but produced a performance of calm destruction to beat the Ukrainian Olesya Povh and the Pole Ewa Swoboda into second and third. “I didn’t have any nerves as I usually do,” Philip said. I have rehearsed this several times. The whole week me and my coach were going over it, getting in my head. I knew what to do and I went and did it.”

There was very nearly a third gold medal on the day for Britain as Shelane Oskan-Clarke slugged it out with Selina Buchel, only to miss out on the 800m title by 0.01sec. As both went for the line after a bumpy and bad-tempered race it was unclear who had won, but the Swiss athlete just got the nod. “I thought I had won,” said Oskan-Clarke, who ran a personal best of 2:00.39. “My legs were dying, but I tried. I was so close, but not close enough.”

There was further success for Britain as Lorraine Ugen set an indoor long jump record of 6.97m to claim silver. But she had no chance against the home favourite Ivana Spanovic, who produced an astonishing leap of 7.24m – the longest indoors since 1989 – to delight the home crowd. “There’s definitely more in the tank,” Ugen said. “I think I can get over that seven-metre mark.”

Robbie Grabarz was also happy with silver after a season’s best 2.30m in the high jump to finish in second behind Sylwester Bednarek, who cleared 2.32m. Afterwards Grabarz, who underwent surgery on a ruptured appendix in January, admitted he was happy just to be back. “There is a lot more in there height wise, but I got to compete which is fun,” he said.

In the penultimate race of the championships, Britain’s 4x400m team of Eilidh Doyle, Philippa Lowe, Mary Ikehe and Lavlai Nielsen claimed another silver behind Poland. It took them to second in the medal table, behind Poland, with five golds, four silvers and a bronze – a result that equalled their 10 medals from Birmingham in 2007.

It will go down in the books as a very good championships for their 31-strong squad. And an even better one for Muir.