The golden bonus was a distance of 7.24 metres – the longest jump indoors since 1989 and enough to put her third on the all-time list behind Russia's Galina Chistyakova and the GDR's Heike Drechsler, whose 7.37m still stands as the world record.

There were also huge performances from Britain’s Laura Muir, who added the 3,000m title to the 1,500m version she had won the previous day, once again with a Championship best, and France's Olympic decathlon silver medallist Kevin Mayer, who won his first big international gold with a European indoor heptathlon record.

But it was the home poster girl whose deeds reverberated with most dramatic effect.

As Spanovic waited for the figures on her third round effort to come up, sitting directly under one of the scoreboards hanging from the roof like giant decorations, she knew she had already effectively secured gold with her second round jump of 7.16m, 13 centimetres better than her own previous world 2017 best.

That put her comfortably clear of Claudia Salman-Rath, the German who had taken a first round lead with a personal best of 6.84m, and Britain's Lorraine Ugen, who had set a national record of 6.97m.

Confirmation temporarily overwhelmed her, and she laid back on the track with arms spread wide as the eager photographers swarmed around - a queen among worker bees.

It was a measure of this defending champion’s performance - since that success in Prague two years ago she has added European outdoor gold and Olympic bronze - that a fourth round effort of 7.17m raised no more than appreciative applause. 

Spanovic, who had promised gold, was simply on a level of her own.

"I enjoyed every minute of competing in front of this home crowd," she said. 

"The people were amazing. 

"I’m really glad I could give them this gold medal."

Ugen took silver and a delighted Salman-Rath, who improved to 6.94m, bronze.

In her first race after the Olympics, Muir improved her British 1,500m record to 3min 55.22sec in Paris and she broke European indoor records at 1,000m and 3,000m as well as setting a British record over 5,000m before arriving in Belgrade.

The 23-year-old Glasgow veterinary student tracked Turkey’s 20-year-old naturalised Kenyan Yasemin Can, who won the European outdoor 5,000m and 10,000m titles last year, until 300m to go, by which point they were both well clear of the field.

At that point, as she would put it, Muir gave it some welly and she finished 30m clear after clocking 29.6sec for the final 200m and an overall time of 8:35.67. 

Can took silver in a national record of 8:43.46 in front of Muir’s compatriot Eilish McColgan, who clocked 8:47.43.

Six months after surpassing himself with Olympic silver in Rio, Mayer earned his first major international gold in crushing fashion as he broke Roman Sebrle's 13-year-old European indoor heptathlon record.

By the time he reached the concluding event of the 1,000m, Mayer’s first European indoor title - following his silver in 2013 - was virtually guaranteed by a 224 points lead over his nearest challenger.

Fourth place was enough to take his final total to 6,479 points, bettering the mark of 6,438 set by the Czech Republic athlete at the 2004 World Indoor Championships.

But the main drama of this concluding event involved Serbia’s Mihail Dudas, who started the 1,000m just one place and 52 points off a medal place, and who seemed on the brink of adding a home bronze to the gold already secured by Spanovic as he responded to the thunderous support in the packed Kombank Arena.

Arriving on the home straight in third position, he stepped exhausted onto the infield, corrected himself, but then staggered again before stumbling headlong to the track as the field flew past him. 

Having picked himself up and limped to the line, he sank his head once again to the track.

Poland finished top of the medals table, just as they had the last time these Championships - in the form of the European Indoor Games - took place in Belgrade 48 years ago.

Victories in the concluding women’s and men’s 4x400m relays shifted the Poles above Britain by 12 medals to 10, and by seven golds to five.