IN every way, Zoey Clark savoured the authentic World Indoor Athletics Championship experience last night. Pitched from despair to delight when the Aberdonian and the rest of Britain’s 4x400m relay team found themselves bumped up into a bronze medal position behind the USA and Poland following the disqualification of the second-place finishing Jamaican team under Rule 218.4 for switching the position of the waiting runner, soon morale was plumbing the depths again as that medal was taken away for some alleged bumping and barging of their own down the back straight.

It wasn’t until after a fraught wait – at one point, no fewer than five of the teams, including winners USA were at risk of disqualification - as the officials pored over the British appeal that Clark and her chums Meghan Beesley, Hannah Williams and Amy Allcock could be confirmed as the sixth British medalists of the weekend. Clark, whose next trick will be to compete for Scotland in the Gold Coast, now finds herself with indoor and outdoor relay medals on her resume.

“It has been a busy weekend - that’s four 400m races in three days; that’s quite tiring,” said Clark. “I’m proud of how we did. We’re such a young team and everyone composed themselves well, used the atmosphere, so I’m happy with how we ran.”

While her countrywoman Eilidh Doyle was excused the run-out in the wake of her 400m heroics yesterday, the next challenge for these two includes battling it out for Scotland in this event. Doyle, who also has a 400m Commonwealth silver medal to defend, said yesterday she couldn’t wait, even if it meant being apart from her dog Ben for a while. “It is lovely [to be able to share world medals with Muir] not only are we team-mates but we are both from the same town, we went to the same school although I left before Laura got there. I can’t wait to get back over the hurdles. Although I am going to miss my dog Ben for five weeks when I go to Australia so that is going to be hard.”

There was to be no Clark-style reprieve for Grant Plenderleith in the men’s 4.x400m relay, although the former Stenhousemuir player was still able to take pride in reaching a global final just months after he had considered returning to junior football. Britain finished sixth behind surprise winners Poland, whose combined time of 3.01.77 was good enough for a new World Indoor Record. “It was a good experience and we have got this experience for Glasgow [European indoor]) next year,” said Plenderleith, second leg of a team which also included Owen Smith, Jamal Rhoden-Stevens and Lee Thompson. “It was good to bring it today, we all know each other from racing indoors for the previous couple of seasons and we already had the bond there that you have with your teammates. I think if the opportunity is given like yesterday we flourish so it is a good experience for us.”

If the other British medal winners of the day win Birmingham were local hero Andrew Pozzi, a superb winner on a photo finish in the 60m hurdles, with a bronze medal for Sheylana Oskan-Clarke in the women’s 800m,, there was also action taking place in London, where Callum Hawkins was squeezed out into third in the inaugural Vitality ‘Big Half’ half marathon as it finished at the Cutty Sark. Hawkins became the first British man to finish ahead of Farah in any race at the Edinburgh Cross Country last weekend, but he didn’t have the kick to live with him down the stretch yesterday, the two men separated by Kenyan Daniel Wanjiru..

“Callum is a great athlete,” said Farah afterwards. “He works hard. Over the years people have compared British people to the Kenyans and said we could never achieve. I don’t see that. Anything is possible if you train as hard as Callum.”