LYNSEY Sharp last night compared winning her 800 metres Commonwealth silver medal to emerging from a long dark tunnel.

This was a rather appropriate metaphor, because it wasn't so long ago that she was in a long dark tunnel. Shortly before capturing her 800m European title in Helsinki in 2012 - it was originally a silver, but was upgraded to gold after abnormalities in winner Yelena Arzhakova's biological passport - the 24-year-old got in a training session or two at an enclosed passageway beneath Edinburgh's Meadowbank stadium when the track was covered ice.

This medal, of course, will remain a silver but the Edinburgh runner is hardly complaining. Neither, for that matter, is her Scottish silver sister Eilidh Child, whose thrilling second place in the 400m hurdles on Thursday had somehow been rendered prosaic by the end of the week.

The end result may have been the same, but in truth there is a marked contrast between these two golden girls of Scottish athletics. While the steely Child went into the event as favourite for the silver medal behind Jamaica's Kaliese Spencer, Sharp's preparations were chaotic.

The events surrounding her triumph over adversity bear re-telling. Having cruised through Wednesday's first round, she appeared out of sorts in the semi-final, only arriving in Friday's final by the skin of her teeth. In the inquest that followed, led by her divorced parents, Cameron and Carol, both of whom are former Commonwealth athletes, it soon became clear that the athlete, who will go in for surgery on a long-standing Achilles problem at the end of the season, was also feeling rather poorly.

This was putting it mildly. Afflicted by an untimely bout of sickness and diarrhoea, Sharp was rushed to a clinic and put on a drip - initially fearing she was suffering from the Norovirus which swept the village early in the games. With her parents unaccredited and unable to attend the athletes village, it was left to Stephen Maguire, the soon-to-depart head coach of Scottish athletics, to stay by her bedside before she finally got some rest at 5.30am on race day.

"I remember Stephen saying when we were coming back from the clinic that 'at least you have got a good story to tell!'" said Sharp. "In the last few weeks when he sees my name coming up on his phone he thinks 'oh no, what drama does she have for me now! The only thing I was worried about was whether it could be the Norovirus or whatever. But they said no because you have not got a temperature."

Both parents, and her sister Carly, felt she should withdraw, but thankfully Sharp was having none of it. If anything, the mishaps merely lessened the burden of expectation, and stiffened her resolve.

Yet while Child had had little problem locating all her maroon-clad family and friends on Thursday night, one key member of Sharp's entourage was posted missing. Her dad Cameron, a multiple medallist at the European and Commonwealth Games, who has reduced mobility after suffered a brain injury in a car crash in 1991, was so afraid of what might transpire that he refused to go to the stadium. Sharp admitted she had been rather miffed at first about his no show. "I was so annoyed," she said. "I didn't even know. It was only Friday night really late, just before I left my mum, that she said he wasn't there and I was like, 'WHAT?'. She said he didn't want me to run because he was really worried. He thought I would end up in hospital. He's sent me two e-mails since, slightly sheepish, but saying, 'you did really well'."

'Get out strong, Commit' were the four words she scribbled on her hand in marker pen, but she also pleads guilty when it comes to another couple of words which her mum used to sum her up in a radio interview yesterday: difficult and diva. "Difficult I get from my dad which sounds, bad but it is that stubborn, slightly self-centred thing that athletes can have," she said. "Everyone jokes about the diva thing, but it is more like I know what I want and need to be the best so it frustrates me when I can't get them."

While her dad keeps his Commonwealth medals hidden away in a bag, Sharp already has a destination set aside. "I have a display cabinet with four sections," she said. "I have my degree in the bottom one, my European medal in one and British Championship medals. Then there's a space waiting for this silver medal."

The closest thing Child had to drama was when a disorientated discus competitor banged into the PA system, causing a noise which led to a fellow 400m hurdles competitor aborting the start by exiting her blocks with her arm in the air. It all fed into a mild hallucination of Child's that she might suffer a false start. "There was a false start in my heat as well so when that happened I just thought 'why does it always happen to me?'" she said. "I had a dream that I had a false start as well the night before."

By comparison, the pre-amble to Child's race was mundane in the extreme. "On race day I pretty much just went into my room and watched rubbish TV," she said. "I watched the best of Graham Norton."

While Sir Chris Hoy has been in touch to pass on her regards to Sharp, Child was starstruck when 200m and 400m legend Michael Johnson said he was privileged to witness her run. While both adjust to the trappings of fame, at least they have the next race to focus on, the European championships in Zurich from August 12. "I guess it's nice that Jamaica aren't in it," said Child, ranked No 1 in Europe. "But you've got Russia who are just as strong."

The two girls are also bonded by a love of football, Sharp of Rangers and Child of Hearts. Both will parade their spoils sooner or later, but not when Hearts travel to Ibrox next Sunday. "That would have been nice," said Sharp. "But it's the day before the Europeans."