Injuries, ailments and super-sized hurdles, Eilish McColgan has taken them all in her elongated stride.

Now, we can add putrefied mango yoghurt to that list of foes vanquished after the 23-year-old Dundonian shook off the after-effects of food poisoning to defend her 3000m steeplechase title at the British Championships in Birmingham last night.

Her time, a shade over nine minutes and 50 seconds, was not quite enough to secure her entry to August's European Championships, with Saturday's Diamond League in Paris likely providing a more suitable opportunity to secure the qualifying standard. Yet the manner in which she rebounded from her travails of the preceding days to bolt away from Scottish rival Lennie Waite on the last lap suggests she has the resilience to achieve her immediate goal.

It was, she smiled, a lesson learned. Never forage in the nether regions of the fridge for sustenance or ignore the advice of your flat-mates.

She said: "I must have taken one teaspoon, but it was obviously curdled and stuff. I was like: 'It tastes fine, you guys are just moaning.' An hour later I was like The Exorcist. I was sick everywhere. I couldn't eat, I couldn't even drink water.

"I called the doctor because it was two days from the trials. I texted my mum [World and Commonwealth 10,000 metres champion Liz McColgan] and she said: 'Why are you being so stingy? Just buy another yoghurt.'

"For the next day-and-a-half I couldn't do a thing. So I've never been so relieved, one, to win a championship, and two, to run 9mins 50sec."

At the close of the second day of the meeting, McColgan's remained the lone Caledonian victory but Laura Muir came close in the 1500m final. The Glasgow-based prospect, who is also Paris-bound, threw everything at Laura Weightman down the final straight, appearing poised to pull off a daring overtaking manoeuvre before the Englishwoman made one last push. "I didn't want to give up," Muir said. "I had to keep working to the line but Laura had a great sprint finish. She was just that bit better."

Eilidh Child was utterly unchallenged as she breezed through the semi-finals of the 400m hurdles, but the flawless manner of her technical execution bodes well for her bid to land a maiden domestic crown.

"If you're all over the place, it just uses up more energy," she said. "I eased off down the home straight off the last hurdle, but apart from a couple of small technical errors, it felt fine. I'm trying to do 15 strides into hurdle six. But my coach told me to just do it into five and see what the wind is like for the final. It's quite an ideal pattern I've got but if I want to compete with the best in the world, then I need to make the adjustments so I get it right when it matters."

Lynsey Sharp appears poised to challenge for the 800m title, but should prepare for a duel with her younger pretender Jessica Judd. The European champion, drenched from the downpours, was able to keep some of her powder dry with a controlled outing in the heats to advance with Emily Dudgeon and Jenny Tan.

None of Scotland's Commonwealth 4x400m squad made today's 400m final with Jamie Bowie closest with fourth place in his semi-final.

The Inverness Harrier, understood to have appealed against the decision to deny him an individual place at the Commonwealth Games, is now facing the loss of his berth on British Athletics Lottery-funded relay programme unless he can find the improvements required to close the gap with his English rivals. "I'm disappointed after what I did last year, but I've got other things to look forward to," Bowie said. "So I'll go back, reset and make sure I'm in the best shape possible for the Games."

Among the other members of Scotland's Commonwealth squad, there was a bronze for James Campbell in the javelin, Kirsty Law in the discus and Mark Dry in the hammer, with Chris Bennett throwing a personal best of 72.58 to come fourth. Danny Talbot claimed the men's 200m title ahead of Adam Gemili while Jodie Williams held off namesake Bianca Williams to claim her first senior crown in the women's 200m.

Today, Allan Smith will attempt to take advantage of the absence of the injured Olympic bronze medallist Robbie Grabarz to chase victory in the high jump. "Going by the last two trials, I've been in the mix so there's no reason why I shouldn't medal again," he said. "But I want the performance and 2.28m is my goal for the Europeans because time is ticking to jump the standard."