EILIDH DOYLE claimed a 17th medal in major international competition by claiming relay silver at the European Athletics Indoor Championships on Sunday.

The Pitreavie AAC star, who is Scotland's most decorated track athlete of all time, led Great Britain's 4x400 metre relay women home to a well-earned silver place in front of a home crowd at Glasgow's Emirates Arena.

In what was the final event of the championships, Doyle – a silver medalist in the relay at the previous event in Belgrade two years ago – ran the anchor leg for a quartet that also featured fellow Scot, Zoey Clark, Laviai Nielsen and Amber Anning.

After Neilsen opened by putting GB into a bronze medal position, Clark burst into second place before handing the baton to Anning, who maintained their position as Doyle took over for the final leg.

The 31-year-old, with a raucous crowd behind her, was tasked with keeping Italy, the eventual bronze medal winners, at bay while running down leaders Poland but, despite gaining metres on the latter, she just ran out of track as they clinched gold in 3:28.77, with GB clocking a time of 3:29.55.

It brought the curtain down on a successful competition for the British team, who fielded a record-equalling 48 athletes, and Doyle – who previously told Press Sport of her desire to "run well in front of a home crowd in Glasgow" – said afterwards: "We knew we were a strong team, especially when we come together.

"We had such a battle against each other at the British Championships, but we know we're all pretty similar, so to come back together as a team and share all our talent was fantastic.

"We knew we could really challenge for the medals and we did such a good job and we’re delighted to win a silver."

Doyle, who was one of nine Scots – the biggest representation for Scottish athletes on a Great Britain and Northern Ireland team in more than 50 years of the European indoors – missed out on automatic selection after finishing fourth at the SPAR British Athletics Indoor Championships last month.

But, having already hit the qualifying time and going on to finish second at the Muller Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham, her place in the team was confirmed but she was unable to add an individual medal to that won in the relay.

After qualifying from her heat in third place – behind Netherlands' Lisanne De Witte, and Belgium's Cynthia Bolingo Mbongo, who recorded a season's best and national record respectively - in a time of 52.81, Doyle missed out on the final after finishing fourth in her semi-final.

Her time of 53.28 wasn't enough to see her qualify, as Mbongo and De Witte finished first and second and clinched their places in the final.