McWilliam, 18, battled her way through to second place despite falling over twice on the run in slippery conditions.

 

Having exited the swim behind early pace setter Anais Moniz of Portugal, McWilliam was instrumental in driving the pace of the chasing pack during the bike leg, managing to reduce the home favourite’s lead to just 25 seconds by transition two.

 

With the onset of rain falling on the cobbled course the road surface quickly became slippery and two of the other Britons, Jodie Stimpson and Rebecca Milnes, were involved in crashes caused by the poor conditions and were forced to retire.

 

During the 5km run McWilliam and Emmie Charayron of France quickly caught Moniz, however two slips on the wet cobbles denied the Scot a gold medal as she finished just ten seconds behind her French counterpart.

 

Moniz held on to third to the delight of the home support.

 

McWilliam said: “I feel a bit disappointed to be honest because I think I probably would have won had I not fallen over twice; however I have one more year as a junior and having now won a bronze and a silver medal at the European Championships I’ll be looking to win gold in Holland next year.”

 

Brownlee from Leeds took third position a year after his older brother, Alistair, took the European junior men’s title in Copenhagen .

 

Having exited in the front pack in the swim, Brownlee made the lead bunch on the bike and looked to be in good shape to defend the family title until a breakaway involving Portugal’s Joao Silva, France’s Vincent Luis and Denis Vasiliev from Russia split the pack as they established a lead of 30 seconds.

 

Despite clocking the second fastest 5km run split with a time of 16min 13sec, Brownlee was unable to catch Luis and Silva who fought out an epic sprint finish with the Frenchman just coming out on top.

 

Having passed ten athletes during the run Brownlee finished third within sight of the front two and just 18 seconds behind.

 

Brownlee said: “I’m really pleased.

 

"It was hard work but it was certainly worth it.

 

"Unfortunately three guys managed to get away in the technical section of the bike course and I couldn’t bridge the gap back up to them. It was a bit hairy riding over the cobbles, but it made it interesting and I had a good time out there today.”

 

Brownlee's brother Alistair was among three Britons in the senior race that had no answer to the team tactics of the French.

 

Following a well orchestrated break away during the 40km cycle leg, Fred Belaubre and Tony Moulai from France took gold and silver ahead of Switzerland ’s Olivier Marceau.

 

Brownlee, the 2006 world junior champion, finished 15th, four places behind Will Clarke.

 

Richard Stannard came 32nd.

 

In the senior women's event, Portugal ’s Vanessa Fernandes won her fifth consecutive title with a dominating display in Lisbon as Glasgow's Kerry Lang finished 17th.

 

Heather Williams, the performance programme director for British Triathlon, said: “Once again our junior performers have really excelled and produced some fantastic results for Great Britain .

 

"Kirsty McWilliam thoroughly deserves her silver medal and probably would have taken gold if it wasn’t for the fact that she fell twice on the run in slippery conditions.

 

"Jonny Brownlee really stepped up to the mark today and will have learnt a lot from this experience.

 

"Both of them will carry forward their performances to the World Championships in Vancouver next month and will be aiming for more success.”

 

Picture credit: Spomedis/triathlon.org