It is a strange aspect of matchplay sport that finishing third can be a better experience than finishing second, but the feeling Kirsty Gilmour experienced when claiming a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast is driving her desire to finish on a winning note at this week’s European Badminton Championships in Huelva.

Until this past season the 24-year-old Scot was making a habit of finishing superb competitive campaigns on a down having lost in five finals at three of the tournaments that are at the top of her priority list, the European Championships, Commonwealth Games and Scottish Open Grand Prix.

Last November that sequence ended when she achieved one of her career goals at The Emirates Arena by winning the Scottish Open for the first time and, although she failed to reach the final as she had in Glasgow four years ago to claim the last of Scotland’s medals, there was still huge satisfaction in finishing with another historic win at the Commonwealth Games.

Victory over Michelle Li in the bronze medal decider not only represented revenge for her loss to the Canadian, whom she had never beaten in four previous meetings, but saw her become just the first Scot to win individual badminton medals at two Commonwealth Games.

Her semi-final was meanwhile a further reminder of how close the current world no.18 is getting to breaking into a new level in the sport as she matched last year’s World Championship quarter-final performance against India’s Saina Nehwal by losing to the Indian – who reached the World Championship final – only after three hard fought sets and, having had to battle back from the career threatening knee surgery she underwent two years ago, Gilmour is drawing upon those experiences.

“I feel like I’m in a really good place with my badminton and I’m trying to make it so that this is the start of a little bit of momentum,” she said ahead of the Europeans.

“Of course, it’s the beauty of sport that it can all change in a second, but I feel as if I can touch the standard and the quality and the level that I need after the way I played against Saina and Michelle. So the Europeans should go pretty well, but it will be more of a mental challenge than a physical one because my body feels pretty good. It’s more about being in the right head space and then transferring that on court I think.”

As the tournament’s second seed she was granted a first round bye, but ahead of today’s opening match she was anticipating the toughest possible start against a familiar foe in the shape of Denmark’s Mette Poulsen whom she has beaten in each of their four previous encounters, but who also reached last year’s semi-finals at the Europeans to claim a bronze medal.

“Right from the start I’m going to have to be on it and every single round is a name if things go according to plan, but we will have to cross the first bridge as it comes, so I’ll be concentrating from the very first round,” said Gilmour.

“In some ways that’s good because it just makes you zone in from the very start. There’s no seeing how it goes and finding things out. It just makes you engage immediately and that can set off good momentum, so I’m looking forward to it in that respect.

“Mette and I are the same age and I do have a very good record against her, but what’s in the past has very little bearing on the day and I’ll have to have my wits about me.”

Should everything go according to plan Gilmour would face a third successive final against reigning Olympic and two-time world champion Carolina Marin in the Spaniard’s backyard, the pair having previously beaten one another in their respective national Opens, Marin winning in the final at the Emirates in 2013, before Gilmour avenged that defeat in the 2014 Spanish Open final.

That experience offers inspiration, not least because she can identify so closely with what the staging of the event in her hometown will mean to Marin.

“I do have that one win on Carolina which is always in the back of my mind, but there’s a lot of work to do before I would get to that stage playing Carolina in the Carolina Marin Arena as it’s called,” she said.

“It’s her hall in her home town and she’s a very experienced player, but I feel like that might bring some extra pressure to the occasion. However, we’re not thinking about that just yet.”

Only two other Scots are taking part in the Championships this week, the fast-improving partnership of Alex Dunn and Adam Hall contesting the men’s doubles with their campaign also getting underway today against Dutch pair Jelle Maase and Robin Tabeling.