STEPH TWELL stood on the edge of the track in Beijing eight years ago and could hardly take it all in. Days after the entire British team had sung Happy Birthday as she turned 18, came the icing on the cake. To go to an Olympics so young was one thing. To be there in the thick of the fray simply blew the Scot’s mind.

“It was everything I could have imagined from an Olympics: the stiffest possible competition,” she recounts. “Being at a Games, and being in such a spectacle of a stadium was incredible. The Bird’s Nest was like a theatre. You felt you were running on a track that was another level of performance, another level of excellence I guess.

“I was so grateful to be part of that. Plus seeing so many different sports and being shoulder to shoulder in the dining hall with great athletes, I got to meet some awesome people which rubbed off on me.”

Missing out in the semi-finals of the 1500m simply left her hungry for more. Just 0.3 seconds quicker and she would have advanced. The small margins, the then-reigning world junior champion understood. “But to perform at that level – I was just outside my personal best – some people buckle under that kind of pressure so I came away pleased but wanting more of this.”

It’s taken until now to return to the Olympic stage as Twell prepares for today’s 5000 metres heats. Through a broken ankle that left her briefly in a wheelchair and the multiple surgeries it took to fully put her back on track. Through the traumas of missing out on running at London 2012 due to an inexplicable decision from UK Athletics then-performance director Charles van Commenee to rush her back rather than let her fully heal.

It was the Games where she so badly wanted to shine. Instead she was left outside the lanes. Yet in the midst of the bitterness and the frustration and the anger, it was surprisingly therapeutic. “I went to Super Saturday,” she recounts. “I actually had food poisoning so during Mo’s race, I was going backwards and forwards to the toilet. I ate a dodgy kebab. But it was one of the best moments ever watching one of my heroines, Jess Ennis, do what she did. It was like a Zen moment, seeing her so peaceful when she crossed the line. It was amazing.

“Watching was what I needed at the time. Because I’d been in the sport and went to Beijing at the age of 18, I’ve never seen it from a real spectator perspective where you’re going: ‘wow, how awesome is this?’ Actually being a fan again inspired me because I was seeing what all these athletes do. It was pretty special.”

It was truly heart-warming to see Twell land a European bronze last month, to experience ecstasy after unlimited agony. A world championship final back in Beijing last year was a plus but now she has something to show for the months and years it took to return whence she came – and then go beyond.

In her Twickenham training group, her sisters-in-arms have among her rocks. Beth Potter and Lennie Waite’s Olympics are already complete. But it has been so fitting, she says, that the Scots trio who call themselves The Tripod arrived together in Rio rather than leaving one leg at home.

“We are soul sisters, we share experiences, we’ve shared this journey,” Twell confirms. “There have been hard times but we’ve stuck together. And even with all my team-mates in Scotland, there’s been this acknowledgement that we want to be part of something good.

“I’ve been part of systems in the past where it was only about who was doing well at that time. We’ve all felt supported. We all acknowledged that and encourage each other. It’s not an individual on their own. And I’ve felt that heritage, a bit like being part of a family where you respect and encourage others.”

Along with Eilish McColgan, no stranger to injury herself, and Laura Whittle, the initial round of the 5000m holds a door towards the final in three days time. Maybe, for her, that will become Fab Friday?

“That would be cool,” she smiles. “The heats of an Olympic Games will be so much fiercer than the world champs. It will be another level. Once you’re in the final, it’s a tactical race but qualifying will be stiff.”