Angharad Evans, the Commonwealth 100-200 double in the bag in Glasgow on a slower scale, stormed to the first European women's 100m breaststroke title for Great Britain in the event's history her this evening.

Continental crowns in the two-length race are ten a penny among GBR's men men, one might say, what with Britain top of the all-time leaderboard with seven titles, Olympic champions Adrian Moorhouse (3 golds) and Adam Ramsay-Peaty (4) the biggest medal haulers at the continental summer showcase.

There've been a decent number of silvers and bronzes, for Suki Brownsdon and others, down the decades but never gold. Until now, and it came with the spice off serious progress, on clock, learning curve and ability to cope under pressure.

Evans, 23, turned heads as she set a championship record in all three rounds - 1:05.45 in heats; 1:04.97 in semis and now, 1:04.87 in the final, another British record in the bag and a list of seven efforts that so far this year also happen to be the fastest seven in the world. The European record is a half a second away: it used to be the World record, 1:04.35, by Ruta Meilutyte (LTU) in 2013.

And there was more this season from Evans, as Aquatics GB noted:

In Glasgow, victories in the 100 and 200m came the hard way, the expectation of a home crown rattling Evans' nerves and keeping her from her best on the clock. The lesson was "so important", she said this evening. If she could cope in the home-Games cauldron before the British target event of the year, she could come to Paris knowing the nerves would not stand in the way of her delivering the sub-1:04 and sub-2:20 speed she mustered in the calm waters of trials in April.

In the 100m final this evening, Evans delivered precisely what her coach Ben Higson, at the Stirling Performance Centre, had asked for as the last of three wishes: 'dominance'. Says Evans with a chuckle:

"Ben tells me three things before every race: hit my line, stay over [control] my stroke, and ... dominate."

Job done. She drew level with Mona McSharry, Ireland's Olympic bronze medalist ahead of her in the Games final here in Paris two years ago, with 25m to go, and then, surged with such confidence that neither McSharry nor the rest could respond. By the close of battle, it was silver for Ireland 0.54sec back in an Irish record of 1:05.41, inside her previous best of 1:05.51.

The bronze to former Italian World 50m champion Benedetta Pilato a distant 1.02 behind the champion. Among the scalps was Germany's World champion of last year, Anna Elendt.

"Something I've done this past season is build up that trust in my stroke, so I let them go to 50 a bit," said Evans.

"I learned from every round that I did last night was phenomenal, but I let them go too much on that front 50, so I stayed there with them a little bit. And then to half-way home down the last length, I tried to build it up a little bit, stay on their shoulders. That last 25m, I just went for it!"

Looking back at what she's learned this past month of two major meets, she says:

"He [Ben Higson] said that, you know, regardless of if it's a heat or a semi-final, to leave my mark and show them that I'm not playing around - also to build my confidence up. Every single race has been an honest effort, and I'm just proud that I got over my nerves tonight and managed to get a PB."

"I think it's about playing to your advantage. I don't have that front end speed, but I have back-end speed like no one else in that race, and I know that. And I think the only thing that would stop me is the nerves, and I made a mission for the past two days to just completely distract myself.

"I'm not thinking about swimming when I'm not at the pool, and that just helps conserve that, I guess ... [no] nervous energy that drains me the whole week that I had at Commies. When I said Commies was a big step forward in my career, I meant it, and now I'm here showing it."

More below, including the role Adam Peaty-Ramsay played, her return from the States, which wasn't for her, and why Stirling was the answer - and the history file on the Euro championship women's 100m breaststroke.

So, were we looking at the Peaty of Britain's growing female force in swimming? Or rather the first Extraordinary Evans?

The champion beamed back with a bit of both:

"People compare me to Adam Peaty, and it's such an honour. He's someone that I looked up to all of my younger swimming years, but also I do want to make a name for myself. I guess I have a completely different story to him."

Evans went to college in the U.S. in search of progress in the swimming lion's den, but she said it didn't suit her. She almost quit, before she returned to the UK and opted for Stirling. Although her mum is American and her dad is Welsh, she opted to race for Scotland to pay Stirling back "for all they've done for me".

"Going over to the States and taking time out of the water at a time when Adam was breaking world records, I'd stepped back from the sports,' she recalls. "So if you look at the two journeys, yes, we swim the same stroke, but in completely different ways, and we've been through completely different things. And, you know, he's had a lot of downs, but a lot of ups. But I had very different hills than him, and I think it's just beautiful that we are top in the nation but have come from such different backgrounds."

Like McSharry and Alendt: both weren't to the USA and prospered, but horse for course... and each to their own. Stirling has been sterling for Evans, who also revealed that Ramsay-Peaty had helped her overcome the nerves that had held her back from her best win race day:

"He said to me, he's always there for me to lean on with nerves and, you know, navigate that journey. Now I'm in the higher end of the sport as opposed to a few years ago when I was just sort of on the first stage. So it's very comforting to have someone as experienced as him behind me."

McSharry said of her silver:

“It's still not set in, it might take me until I get up onto the podium to kind of really be like, okay, this happened. I think I was just so focussed on putting together a good race, which I did, you can't be happier than with a PB. I was definitely nervous going into it. But I was really happy with yesterday's race, and I think the goal was maybe first 25m the same, kind of build a little bit more into the wall, and then try and focus on really racing the second 50m.

When I turned, I could see Pilato right there beside me, and she was a bit ahead, so I was like, right, I gotta go here, I don't know what's happening behind me, so I was just pushing and yeah, really happy with that."