THE first lady of Scottish swimming is at it again. The identities of her competitors may come and go, but Hannah Miley keeps doing what Hannah Miley does.

It is now 14 years and counting that this pint-sized phenomenon has been reaching medal rostrums of major competitions. On the first night in the pool at these unique Glasgow multi-sport European Championships, Miley stretched that 5ft 5in frame of hers to the full to secure the event’s first Scottish medal, a bronze in her favourite event, the 400m individual medley. It was also Britain’s only swimming medal on day one.

Opening the show is a role this Inverurie lass has grown accustomed to playing. She got the ball rolling for Scotland in this pool with gold back at Glasgow 2014 and a silver in the Gold Coast in 2018 and long may it continue, hopefully to Tokyo and beyond. When she turns 29 on Wednesday that means she will already have stuck at it fully six years longer than Rebecca Adlington ever did.

The image of Miley smiling sweetly happens at the end of most of her events, but if the smile seemed wider last night it probably was. As much as she insisted she was happy with being touched out at the death by the Stirling-based English swimmer Aimee Willmott as she chased what would have been a record-breaking hat-trick of Commonwealth golds in this event in the Gold Coast, she could have been happier. This, on the other hand, was a perfect tactical race. Going out slowly as usual, she took eventual winner Fantine Lesaffre of France and runner-up Ilaria Cusinato of Italy down to the wire, and ultimately gained a measure of revenge on her UK rival Willmott by getting third in a time of 4.35.34. She had suspected a medal was up for grabs, particularly with Katinka Hosszu of Hungary and Mireia Belmonte of Spain.

“There wasn’t anything for me to make up for, for me silver is still a silver medal,” said an over-joyed Miley, who stood on the podium fully a head shorter than the two swimmers who finished before her. “I am not going to be disappointed about that.

“But it was so nice just to come away with a medal, especially when it came down to the last couple of metres,” she added. “I’ve been touched out so many times and it was nice to finally just be amongst the medals with that touch. My first European Champs was 2006 so to still be medalling in 2018 at the age of 28, soon to be 29, is pretty good for someone my size!”

Miley has plenty of previous when it comes to agonising fourth placed finishes. And coming down the stretch, having made her usual slow start only to roar back into third after around 250m, that scenario wasn’t exactly out of the question here either. As much as Miley loves the sport for its own stake, it is nice to have a memento to justify all the hard work.

“You never know, I thought I might have been in fifth or sixth, so when I touched and saw I was in third, I just thought ‘yes’,” said Miley. “It was just nice to be able to come with a materialistic item that I can look back on and will always have in terms of memories.”

Emerging out at Tollcross from behind a wall of flamethrowers, Miley had instinctively felt the warmth of the home crowd. Back in action in the 200m individual medley, she called for the Glaswegian public to snap up the remaining tickets. “I had never been so hot with the flames, it really is warm in the call room,” she added. “If there are people watching on TV who are undecided whether to come down it just makes such a big difference having that crowd there.”

Typically, she remained non-committal about whether she would make it all the way to Tokyo. But on this form it would be a shame if she wasn’t still around. “I need to look after myself physically and mentally and take it from there,” said Miley. “But it’s nice to see the young girls coming through. They can put the cat among the pigeons.”

Miley’s joy yesterday found its counterpoint in the emotions of Ross Murdoch earlier in the day. When the boy from Balloch who shocked himself, Michael Jamieson and the world here at this venue back in 2014 came up with 59.14 in the heats of the 100m breaststroke it was his joint fastest-ever time over this distance, and the third fastest qualifying time the continent had to offer.

The only problem was that the two men faster than him on the day were British, and all nations are allowed only two competitors in the semi-final and beyond. With the imperious Adam Peaty smashing his own championship record with a time of 57.89, that meant finishing 0.02 seconds behind James Wilby, the man who pipped him to Gold Coast gold, meant he was packing his bags, or at least saving himself for his preferred event, the 200m breaststroke, also on Tuesday. It was a bit like Yohan Blake getting bumped out of a 100m final for finishing 0.03 seconds behind Usain Bolt.

“I am disappointed. It was bitterly, bitterly close. But I swam a great race. This is the best swim I have done in a heat by a country mile. It was always going to be tough for me to come in this morning and try and go a season’s best but I’ve done bang on my best time ever, so I can’t really complain. I would have loved to have seen what I could do in the semi-finals.”