Laura Muir labelled her hard-fought European 1500m title defence the ‘hardest race she’s ever run’ after a lightning turn of pace propelled her to a third major medal of the summer in Munich.
On another successful day for Great Britain, Muir was the star of the show as she backed up her Commonwealth Games gold and World Championship bronze with another superb run.
Muir, the Olympic silver medallist, and Ciara Mageean broke away from the chasing pack as the bell sounded for the final lap, but just as she did in Birmingham, Muir held off the challenge from Mageean in another masterful middle-distance display.
She said: “It looked hard on paper but actually doing it in person, never again. It was an amazing opportunity and a very unique one that we’d ever get three championships in a year, let alone in five weeks in the summer.
“It’s just insane but I said you know what, I’ll give it a go.
“I got a medal at all three and to win the Commonwealths and win here, I’m so happy.
“This was the hardest one – on paper it looked the easiest one event, only two rounds, but it’s the easiest out of the three physically.
“But it was so tough mentally – the most difficult race I think I’ve ever run. It was so hard – credit to all the other athletes who have done the three events, because it’s so difficult.”
Elsewhere, a spellbinding evening on the track continued with a gold for Zharnel Hughes in the men’s 200m, just ahead of teammate Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake.
Hughes entered the race as favourite and delivered a performance worthy of the tag with a time of 20.08s.
“It was all strategy,” he said.
“Once I got lane three, I said I have been here before, I just need to get out good enough and maintain it with the guys. Once I got to 110, 120, I made my move and showed my composure, cross the line for a gold medal.”
Dina Asher-Smith was unable to match Hughes, however, and admitted she was disappointed to come away with silver in the women’s 200m final.
Asher-Smith, who pulled up with cramp in the 100m final, was narrowly beaten by Mujinga Kambundji, despite a rapid start.
"I came here to win so I am not super happy but at the end of the day she put together a better race, so congrats to her. I really thought that I was in better shape - well, I am in better shape than that - but it's silver and that's still good.
Elsewhere, Tom Pidcock reckons returning to his mountain bike roots has provided the perfect platform for completing an unprecedented cycling hat-trick after grabbing more major glory.
The Olympic mountain bike champion added the European title to his rapidly-growing collection after soaring to a stunning Stage 12 triumph at the Tour de France last month.
The 23-year-old competes in all three road, mountain and cyclo-cross events and kicked his year off by winning Cyclo-cross World Championship gold in Arkansas in January.
The mountain and road events are next on his jam-packed calendar and Pidcock says the escapism of his favourite discipline this week can help fire him to a treble.
He said: “Mountain biking is what I enjoy doing and gives me a mental break from the road.
As much as I enjoy the road, it’s much more high-pressured and a more high-performance environment.
“This gets me away and means I enjoy riding my bike – and that’s one of the big reasons I do mountain bike.
“It’s a good nice fun atmosphere – it’s more of a relaxed sport than road racing.
In Rome, divers Ben Cutmore and Kyle Kothari soared to 10m synchro platform gold to continue a fine week for British Swimming.
The pair, who have only been diving together since the spring, landed a superb 76.80-point final dive to take gold ahead of Ukrainian favourites Oleksii Sereda and Kirill Boliukh.
The win continues a remarkable British diving run in the Italian capital, with four victories in the first nine finals. Kothari had already claimed gold alongside Lois Toulson on Tuesday, before individual success for Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix and Jack Laugher.
There was further success in the Italian capital, as Yasmin Harper enjoyed her first taste of European glory with a bronze in the 3m springboard.