Golden girl

Teenage swimming sensation Hannah Wilson is on target for the 2008 Olympic final and is tipped to win a medal at the 2006 Asian Games in Qatar.

Last weekend the 15-year-old won two gold medals and a bronze at the Australian Youth Olympics Festival and sliced an astonishing seven-tenths of a second off the Hong Kong 100-metre freestyle record she set in Athens last summer. 'It was totally out of the blue and a lot better than I thought I would do. It was a huge chunk of time. My teammates were as shocked as I was,' said Hannah. 'I could feel my technique was good and I knew it would be fast, but I wasn't expecting to be that fast.'

She lowered the mark from 57.33 to 56.63 seconds in just five months. At this rate, the Island School student is on track to swim 54 seconds at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Such a time would almost certainly put her in the final. And if she can improve further, she would be challenging the best from Europe, the United States and Australia for a medal. If she is aiming for the stars, the world record currently stands at 53.52 seconds.

Hannah was in fantastic form at the festival held at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre. After setting the 100m record, she made it a sprint double the next day by winning the 50m freestyle.

She also anchored the SAR team to a bronze medal and broke the local record in the women's 4x100m freestyle relay. The Hong Kong team, comprising Fung Wing-yan, Sze Hang-yu, Lee Leong-kwai and Hannah, clocked an impressive three minutes, 53.89 seconds. Hannah also set a new Hong Kong record with teammates Wing-yan, Hang-yu and Ng Ka-man in the 4x200m freestyle relay (8 minutes, 32.57 seconds).

It was a remarkable performance by Hannah because she was up against some of the best under-18 swimmers in the world.