Child aiming to conjure a Hampden home win

The 26-year-old reached the Olympic 400m hurdles semi-final last year and won Commonwealth silver in Delhi, on both occasions at significantly bigger venues than Hampden. "I spend most of my free time at football matches," Child said. "I'm a Hearts supporter. But it was a great idea to have a taste of what we can expect next year."

Missing the Olympic final was "a big disappointment", one she aims to put behind her by reaching the world final in Moscow this summer. Her coach, Malcolm Arnold, sanctioned her return from Bath to Scotland on condition that she pay a forfeit. I told her she could miss training but if she doesn't medal in Moscow she has to stand on a chair from October to Christmas and sing the English national anthem in front of our training group," the Welshman says with a huge guffaw, although Child would do well to take him seriously.

Her talent was first evident when she won under-13 silver at the Scottish Cross Country Championships in 2000. That success was followed by podium places and Scottish League victories at 800m and 1500m, then forays into 60m and 100m hurdles and sprints. Child won national titles under the Pitreavie coach Norman Gardner before graduating to one-lap hurdles. She excelled at whatever she tried. "At university I almost quit," she says. "Everything came so easy when I was younger. Mum and dad would take me training, make my dinner. When it came to racing, I was good and didn't have to work too hard. I wasn't prepared for university. I was blase. Lectures, studying, fixing meals – training on my own in the pitch black and freezing cold was a shock. I didn't want to train any more. For the first time in my life it was a burden.

"In halls of residence, I never told them I was an athlete. They knew I ran, and would ask if I'd like to join them for a run, and I'd go. It was a couple of years before they asked why I'd never told them. There was something on every night, and I didn't want to miss all the social life. I ate fast food and takeaways. I put on weight. I have a video of me at the British University Championships and I look heavy. I lost to people I'd beaten easily before.

"It wasn't about drinking, more the late nights. I wasn't drunk or hungover, but I was exhausted. The balance was all wrong, and I was very close to quitting. I told my sister, Iona, I didn't want to run any more. She'd already quit athletics and told my parents. She was the opposite to me: loved training but didn't like competing. She was too nervous.

"They didn't want to force me to run but my sister and brother talked me out of it and I knuckled down. I was fifth at the European under-23s the next year, and was back on it. It made me realise how much I wanted it, or I might not have the lust for it that I do."

Child spent two years teaching physical education at Perth Grammar before moving to Bath. "She has moved on substantially," Arnold says. "She trains well, trains hard and is very assiduous in whatever she does, but she wasn't making any headway, principally because she was a bloody awful hurdler. She was timid, lacked aggression, slipped extra strides in. It was causing loss of momentum, destroying her race. I tried to change this by normal methods, and failed miserably.

"So I suggested an indoor season, because you can't faff about at 400 indoors; you've got to get to the front and hold it, or you're stuffed. She tried that last winter, and broke PBs all down the line. She more than held her own nationally; getting out front and not being timid. The European indoors showed she can do it internationally: 51.45 is a very good performance indeed."

Indeed, it is faster than former world 400m hurdles record-holder Sally Gunnell ever ran indoors and would have won Commonwealth silver on the flat in Delhi. "In South Africa before Christmas, Eilidh was a lot bolder over the hurdles," added Arnold. "[Her time] should come down a huge chunk this summer."

Child's first hurdles race will be in Florida or Guadaloupe, after April in Daytona Beach with the GB squad. "My endurance has always been good," she says. "If I can develop an efficient stride pattern, times will take care of themselves. When I stand on the start line now, there's really no hurdler in the world who is much faster than me. It won't be a bonus to make the world final. I'm now somebody who should be in it."

Child lives with her boyfriend for a week each month and in Bath for the remainder, staying with Dr Scott Drawer, who manages UK Sport's £10m innovation budget, and his Scottish wife, Kirsty, who is a former Olympic curler. Perri Shakes-Drayton, who denied Child gold in Sweden, is a good friend. "We get on well, and I'm grateful she's there. I might be complacent if I was best in Britain," Child says. "I need to be among the best in the world because of Perri. I want to win the AAAs, be European hurdles champion, but she's always there. That makes me work harder. She says she always has to be on her A game too. I see it as a good thing. I'm getting closer each time and when we race I feel she is within reaching distance."

Barely one in seven of Scotland's 41-strong 2014 athetics squad are full-time like Child. She is aware there will be huge pressure as a role model and leading medal prospect. "I was teaching full-time when I won silver at the European under-23s," she says. "I had a solid routine: work, training, home, dinner and in bed by 10pm. It wasn't much of a life, but it's what you need to do. I realise how fortunate I am. I don't see anything in my lifestyle as a sacrifice. I love what I do."