A magnificent campaign which has established her as Scotland's greatest badminton singles player ended in defeat yesterday but no-one was letting Kirsty Gilmour feel sorry for herself.

Her silver medal in the women's singles event, which added to the bronze won by Robert Blair and Imogen Bankier in the mixed doubles the previous evening, made this a triumphant Commonwealth Games for Scottish badminton and those involved in it who have battled to ensure that its top players were given every chance to perform in Glasgow.

The success of those players is given perspective by the prediction made a couple of years ago by a former badminton internationalist, who struck a rather defeatist tone by claiming that Asian countries would dominate the sport completely and no-one would be able to do anything about it.

In many ways the line-up for yesterday's finals reinforced part of that message. Indeed, the all-English mixed doubles match apart, not one other non-Asian player was involved, but the difference is that Gilmour is not prepared to accept the inevitable.

The 20-year-old proved that much when she defeated New Zealand's Michelle Chan - a player born in Hong Kong like Michelle Li, who defeated Gilmour to win singles gold for Canada yesterday - and even moreso when she produced a run of 10 successive points from 19-11 down in the second game of Saturday's semi-final against Malaysia's Tee Jing Ji to guaranteed herself a medal.

That was Gilmour's moment of elation, as exhilarating as the epic run produced by Lynsey Sharp at Hampden a day earlier. While the curious element of match sports is that players win bronze medals but get silver as a result of defeats, there was a realisation among every Scot inside the Emirates that this was her time to celebrate.

"I was on the edge, but I've held it together. I'm trying to be disappointed but everyone's just been so positive," she said after receiving her medal. "Obviously bronze and gold you end on a win, silver you're so close, but I am just not complaining at all.

"It's not that I don't care right now, but I've got a silver medal from the Commonwealth Games around my neck and I'm just delighted. I wanted to go that one better, but Michelle was on fire and I just had no answer."

That was the truth of the final and, while Gilmour was the higher seed in the match as the higher-placed player in the world rankings, Li - who had beaten top seed PV Sindhu in both last week's team event and Saturday's semi-final - is clearly a better player than those rankings suggest. She largely self-funded, though, and is unable to get to sufficient major events.

From the outset Li took charge again yesterday and raced into a 3-0 lead in the opening game. Trailing 11-4 at the break, Gilmour did well to match her opponent in the second half of the opener but when she lost the first seven points of the second she knew the game was up. The Scot offering a slightly self-mocking fist pump when she finally broke her duck by letting a Li serve drift long.

The Canadian was generous in victory, claiming the scoreline of 21-14, 21-7 had not reflected how tough the rallies were, but she also benefited hugely from the fact that Gilmour - who had been swamped by messages of congratulation and support from the moment she won her semi-final - was well below her best.

"I just maybe gave so much [on Saturday], concentration-wise, in those last 10 points, possibly the most I've ever concentrated in my whole life so to have to knuckle down and reproduce it today was maybe a bit of an ask," said Gilmour. "But I tried my best, sneaked a couple here and there, but was just not 100 per cent mentally there, the head not matching up with the legs."

Bankier had felt the need to hide away from her room-mate on Saturday afternoon because she "didn't want to infect her with my negativity"following defeat in the mixed doubles semi-final. However, their respective medal success yesterday ensured that everyone in the Scottish badminton set-up had something to celebrate.

"I think we're going to clink the medals together later. It's great. To come away with two medals, everyone's happy," said Gilmour.

The World Championships are later this month so the Scots are due back in training very soon, while Gilmour also has another obligation to occupy her time. She is putting together a pitch for a documentary as part of her University film-making and screen-writing course. The subject? "The effects of the referendum on sport."

Her performances have perhaps played a considerable part in a variation of that debate; the effect of sport on the referendum. Gilmour would not be drawn on what she hoped that effect might be, but she has done more than most to help Scots to feel some pride at this key moment in the country's history.