Sharp initially won the silver at the Championships in Helsinki behind winner Yelena Arzhakova, only for the Russian to fail a drugs test and be stripped of her title.

As a Scottish athlete who competes for Edinburgh AC, receiving her long awaited gold medal at Glasgow's Emirates Arena is particularly poignant and Sharp will be hoping for more success in the city at the Commonwealth Games this summer - along with a successful European title defence in Zurich.

The 23-year-old, who reached the semi-finals at London 2012 before injury disrupted her 2013 season, was also upgraded from bronze to silver position in the 800m at the 2011 European Under-23 Championships following Arzhakova's removal from the results.

Arzhakova, who went on to finish sixth at the London 2012 Olympic final, was handed a two year ban, starting from January 29, 2013, for showing an "abnormal haemoglobin profile in her biological passport".

Her suspension marked one in a huge number of Russians to fail drugs tests last year across a wide spectrum of sports, but especially in athletics, where in October European 5,000m champion Olga Golovkina became the 32nd Russian in the sport to be banned in 2013 alone.

Yelena Arzhakova, pictured celebrating following her "victory", was one of 32 Russians in athletics alone to test positive in 2013 ©AFP/Getty Images


Sharp admitted afterwards that when she was first told about her upgrade her reaction "was a mixture of disappointment, satisfaction and elation".

"I was disappointed that another athlete has been discovered breaking the rules and that I was denied the chance to hear my national anthem played in the stadium," she added.