EILIDH DOYLE and Laura Muir are close, both emotionally and geographically. These two world class Scottish runners, their childhoods separated just by the 1.5 mile trot between Kinross and Milnathort and a handful of year groups at Kinross High School, have roomed together at many an athletics event for Great Britain or Scotland over the years.

Not so long ago, when they shared a room in the Glasgow 2014 athletes village, it was Doyle who took time out from basking in the glory of her 400m hurdles silver medal to convince Muir, a faller in the 1500m final, to look on the bright side. The disappointment – albeit tempered by a relay medal which made her the most decorated Scottish athlete in history – belonged to Doyle last weekend at the European Indoor Championship in Belgrade, but the 30-year-old still found time to mark the two gold medals which saw Muir's stunning success story come full circle. Medals are a bit like buses, Doyle reminded her younger pal. You wait for ages and then two come along at once.

"Laura’s first international was the European Indoors in Gothenburg four years ago," recalled Doyle. "I won two medals and Laura was my room-mate. That was her first GB cap. I hadn’t met her before but I knew she was going and it was her first international. I had put my name down to room with her because she might not have known anybody. We got on like a house on fire and have ever since. We have roomed lots since then – in Glasgow, at the Europeans, World Championships.

"I had a wonderful experience in Glasgow but it was a disappointment for her," the 30-year-old added. "Yet she was so lovely with me and happy. She was there at my lap of honour to give me a hug. I remember saying to her 'this will be a defining moment in your career – I guarantee it'. 'This will make you'.

"You can see her attitude and how determined she is. If she runs badly, she will not feel sorry for herself. She will be angry, annoyed but will move on. To see what she has done, in particular the last year, is phenomenal.

"In Belgrade this week I just gave her a big hug. I’m so proud of her – I saw her after she won both her medals and she came back to watch the 4x400m. It was lovely to see her have that moment. I think she probably felt she had that monkey on her back because she didn't have the medals and people kept reminding her of it. No longer is she going to have the pressure of not having won a major medal. That will bode well for her confidence going forward. It could be a defining moment in her career too."

As close as they are these days, the first Doyle ever learned of Muir was via her parents, the agency of the local newspaper, and her schoolteachers. "We’re from the same area," said Doyle. "But we didn’t really know each other back then. I was aware of who she was through my mum and dad because they said 'this girl Laura Muir is in the local newspapers a lot'. Then when I went back to visit the school, they said 'oh, we’ve got Laura. She’s breaking a lot of the records that you had'."

Doyle is speaking at a school in Baillieston, on a date carefully choreographed to coincide with Commonwealth Day, and the launch of the Queen’s Baton Relay for Gold Coast 2018. A bright blue Koala called Borobi is introducing himself to his predecessor as Commonwealth Games mascot, Clyde, and Doyle – arguably the face of the 2014 games – is reliving the part she had to play in the 2014 ceremony, when she took the baton from Daley Thompson and carried it over the border from England to Scotland.

"That was incredible – to be the first person to get it in Scotland and carry it over the border," she said. "It was kind of like the trigger, right it is in Scotland now, we haven't got long. So there was excitement and nerves as well. Loads of people turned up. It was incredible. I think we were up at five in the morning. The local cafes had been making bacon rolls and cups of tea for everyone who had come out to see us. It is crazy to think that we are back round again and getting ready for the next one already."

While having the games in April makes things rather awkward, Doyle would love to equal or better her 2014 achievement. But she has plenty to be getting on with before then. A Serbian experience which saw her pipped into third in her 400m semi-final, failing to make the final, before running to redemption in the relay, has only made her more determined when it comes to the outdoor World Championships in London in August. Having initially hinted that she would give up the sport in 2018, she is now targeting a tilt at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. By this time her husband Brian may have picked up the lead coaching role from the veteran Malcolm Arnold, and the pair may well be based back north of the border in Cumbernauld.

"I wanted to get a medal just so I could get that 12th one," said Doyle, who now stands alone above Yvonne Murray in terms of all-time Scottish medal winners. Cognisant of her Olympic experience, where she had ran from lane one in the final and only managed eighth, Doyle had gone out hard to win her semi-final, only to be pipped into third and fail to qualify for the final.

"But after the semi-final I was devastated," she added. "When I was coming down the home straight it was like 'oh no, I am not going to get a good lane' and then it was 'oh no, I am not going to reach the final at all'. My coach told me afterwards that I had done exactly what he had told me to do. Because the whole indoor season was about making sure I get off to an aggressive start. But the bigger picture is that I want to win individual medals and be competitive.

"The indoors is always a completely different ball game for me, not everyone does it and I don't get the chance to do the hurdles, it is just the four flat. But hopefully it will all work well when it comes round to the championships outdoors. I was gutted after that semi final and I want to make sure when it comes to London that I am in that final, fighting it out for the medals. I think it has definitely shown me how much it still means to me. It still has that effect on me."

A record-breaking dozen medals is all very well, but Doyle still craves more – particularly those fully secured under her own steam. "Obviously no-one can take medals away from you, but out of my medals only four of them are individual, and I would love to have more of them and less from relays," she says, before alighting on another thought. "But I don't know how long that record will last anyway, with Laura doubling up all the time."