Eilidh Child looks well placed to this week go one better than her Commonwealth Games silver, having yet again bossed the 400 metres hurdles field in qualifying for the European Championships final.

The 27-year-old Scot was the poster-girl of Glasgow 2014, where two weeks ago she just missed out on the crown at Hampden Park.

In Zurich she qualified fastest from the heats on Wednesday and then again from the semi-finals, crossing the line in 54.71 seconds, with clearly more in the tank.

"My coach just said to do what I did on Wednesday, but finish it off because I knew girls would be closer to me," she said."Having the inside draw, it's nice to know what's going on. Ultimately I've got to concentrate on my own race, but it's nice to know where everyone is."

Child has a day's rest today before the final tomorrow, when she follows reigning 800m champion Lynsey Sharp and Jessica Judd onto the track.

Having seen Alison Leonard, the fastest qualifier from the heats, fail to finish the first semi-final after a knock, the British pair avoided such issues by controlling their race.

Commonwealth silver medallist Sharp and Judd led from the outset, with the former winning the semi in two minutes 01.32 secs and teenager Judd third.

"I felt really good, as strong as usual," Sharp said. "I tried to stay calm and just run my own race so that's why I was running from the front."

Will Sharman had to settle for 110 metres silver, missing out on the first major title of his career for the second time in a matter of weeks. Fresh from his second-place finish at the Commonwealth Games, the 29-year-old was again pipped to the line in Zurich.

Sharman had earlier secured a personal best of 13.16 seconds in the semi-finals. It was a feat he was unable to repeat last night, though, as he clattered into the seventh and eighth hurdles after a strong start.

Sharman dipped to take silver in 13.27secs and was relieved to have clinched a podium place in a race in which only two hundredths of a second separated second and fifth.

"I got away with it when I slapped the hurdle with the trailing leg, but that exposed the next hurdle which I hit with my lead," he said.

"I knew I was in the lead, I knew where Sergey Shubenkov is good and I knew where I was stronger and I didn't expect to be in the lead in the middle section. I could have done more and that's why I was gutted.

"Going into this I was bronze medal hopeful, but we've been working on improving my absolute time so that if I do make a mistake in the final I can still come away with a medal."

Meanwhile, Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad was stripped of his 3,000m steeplechase gold medal at the European Championships for removing his vest on the home straight.

In a bizarre incident, the pre-race favourite from France chose to break the rules by removing his top, putting it in his mouth and waving to the crowd.

Mekhissi-Benabbad won the race in eight minutes and 7.45 seconds and was shown a yellow card by the officials in Zurich afterwards.