It took a world record by the USA to thwart Great Britain & Northern Ireland's hopes of ending the world indoor championships with gold last night in Sopot but, for Jamie Bowie, the taste of silver from the 4x400m relay was sweet.

The Highlander, in the most important race of his 24 years, had a vital role on the second leg before handing off for Luke Lennon-Ford and Nigel Levine to resist a strong challenge by Jamaica.

Great Britain's medal haul over the three days on the Baltic coast rose to six, headed by the surprise 60m victory plundered by Richard Kilty 24 hours earlier. For Bowie, the reward resonated all the more for his father Sandy having witnessed his accomplishment 12 months after his diagnosis with cancer of the throat.

He is now on the road to recovery and his son has been further energised by the fight. "It just made me [realise] that I needed to go and do it," he said. "And now, here I am, running with the best guys in the world."

The United States, who blasted clear for a time of 3:02.13, were a class apart but the British quartet held their nerve to exceed the bronze claimed by their female counterparts earlier in the session. Bowie will now turn his attentions to qualifying for the Commonwealth Games. His heightened confidence, he trusts, will be an asset.

"It's pretty special," he said. "This is only my second championships and I was just off the European record which my coach holds. I'll probably get a bit of stick but it took a world record to beat us. It shows [that] if you put four guys together, it doesn't matter about the individual times. We proved that out there on the track."

Eilidh Child, the team captain, ran the opening leg of the women's 4x400m; they took bronze as Christine Ohuruogu held off Russia to secure third behind the USA and Jamaica. "I wanted us to come away with a medal because I knew it would be very tough," Child said. "We knew there'd be four good teams so I'm delighted we came out as a medal."

Katarina Johnson-Thompson claimed silver in the long jump with a personal best of 6.81m but the young Liverpudlian confessed to a touch of regret that her medal did not come from her specialist event. Uninvited in the pentathlon, she was narrowly beaten by France's Eloyse Lesueur but it was another hint at the immense potential within.

Heptathlon gold at the Commonwealths is now both a target and a possibility, when she plans to return to familiar terrain. "It nearly killed me to watch the pentathlon on Friday," she admitted. "This does make up for it, but I still would have liked to have been in the mix."

Andrew Osagie repeated his bronze of 2012 in the 800m but only after an appeal led to Poland's Marcin Lewandowski being disqualified for stepping off the track. Ethiopia's Mohammed Aman retained his title with a late burst to deny another Pole, Adam Kszczot. "It's bittersweet," the Englishman confirmed. "Marcin's a good friend of mine. It's horrible to be in that situation."

Tiffany Porter's bronze in the 60m hurdles provided the sixth medal, with Holly Bleasdale's ninth place in the pole vault the only major deflation. "If someone had told me we would win six, I would have been very pleased," said Neil Black, the UK Athletics performance director.

Emma Nuttall set a Scottish indoor high jump record of 1.88m at the Canadian University Championships in Edmonton, adding 1cm to Jayne Nisbet's recent mark.

Nuttall had equalled Jayne Barnetson's long-standing indoor record of 1.86m in a meeting in Seattle two months ago only for Loughborough-based Nisbet to claim it outright with a 1.87m clearance at the British Indoor Championships at Sheffield last month.

"I'm gutted I didn't get 1.91m - I was so close on my third attempt but I'll get it in the summer," said Nuttall, a 21-year-old history student whose form could put her in contention for a medal at Glasgow this summer.