Physically she was running on empty but Lynsey Sharp demonstrated just how packed she is with spirit as overcame adversity once more to claim a medal last night and achieve what may be the greatest result of her career.

As European 800 metres champion she should have been considered one of the pre-race favourites for a medal in a race which world champion Eunice Sum - who is unbeaten this year - was all but certain to win. However, few watching inside Hampden realised that her emotional lap of honour after winning silver was as much a consequence the trauma the Scot had undergone since scraping into the final.

Given her reputation as one of those competitors with the capacity to lift her effort in championship conditions, there had, of course, been hopes that the way she had got to the final was merely a blip. Sharp missed out on one of the automatic qualifying places in her semi-final and had to rely on being one of the fastest others.

However, it became evident after that semi-final that the lack of appetite she had been putting down to the food in the athlete's village not agreeing with her was much more of a serious problem. "Last night I went out for dinner because I thought it was the food in the village I wasn't enjoying," she said.

"I ordered a twenty quid steak, it came to the table and I was like 'I can't eat that.' I went back to the village, threw up for a few hours, was taken across to the poly-clinic and was there until half five this morning on a drip.

"All I've eaten today is porridge and scrambled egg so I just came out saying I want to leave everything on the track. After everything I've been through to have one more obstacle thrown at me was just laughable and I just had one shot, two minutes, just to do everything."

Given all that she has been through previously - the agony of watching her father Cameron try to cope with the brain injuries suffered as a result of a car accident soon after Sharp was born, not to mention a plethora of injuries of her own - she could have been forgiven for deciding that she had taken enough.

She admitted she had considered withdrawing from the race. However, she cited the support of Allan Wells, who had given her a photograph of himself with her father and a message telling her to stay determined and focused, and of Sebastian Coe, who had tipped her for a medal in spite of the injury blighted-year she has endured.

"At half two, three last night I had compression socks on and I couldn't bend over to take them off, the cramp in my stomach was so bad. I was like: 'How the hell am I going to run tomorrow when I can't even bend over to take my socks off', but somehow another miracle happened," she said.

"Two things I'll never forget. One was being on my hands and knees being sick outside my room with the nurse holding my hair back and Steven McGuire with four police officers walking away at the sound of me being sick, and being doubled over, trying to take my socks off while Steph Twell was sleeping in my room. I only slept from about half five until nine."

It was a great personal triumph simply to be on the track at all and Sharp admitted that she could not believe that she had found a way to power through the field on the home straight to take second place behind the untouchable Sum.

"It doesn't feel real," said Sharp. "You all know what I've been through and even this morning . . . everything's been a nightmare. This means so much, just the amount of obstacles I've been through.

"This is above everything. The year I've been through I don't know if anything will ever top this."

It was not just that she lived up to her name physically but that she did so mentally that was most impressive in the circumstances.

Perhaps the illness helped her focus, because she was intimidated by the environment the previous night, so much so that she had written a message on her arm to keep her mind off the enormity of it all. "It said just get out strong," she explained. "The crowd was so intimidating, I don't mean that to sound bad, but yesterday I was just s******g myself on the line, so I needed something to totally, like, take me away from the moment and that's why I embraced it today.

"I knew they were here for me and I shouldn't find it intimidating which is why I acknowledged them. But at the same time I was just looking at my hands."

However, last night, once the gun went, her head was clear and she kept her composure and kicked perfectly in the closing stages. "It was probably the first time ever I've run on the inside and taken the shortest route and with about 150 to go on the first lap I could have panicked, but something inside me just said sit there, sit, sit, sit and a gap will open," she said.

Then when the moment came to go for that medal: "I knew as long as I kept my technique no-one would go past me."

Indeed she found the power to run down Uganda's Winnie Nanyondo and turn bronze into silver.

As with so many championship races the time was not particularly quick, with none of the women going under two minutes on this occasion, but that could not have been more irrelevant because this was about racing in its purest sense as a great competitor did what she had to when it mattered to her most.