On Thursday (April 3) Hannah, who swims for Garioch Swimming Club, took gold in the 200m individual medley with a time of 2:12.17, having already met the Olympic qualifying time in the heats.

Better was yet to come, as in the heats for 400m individual medley, on Saturday (April 5), Hannah set a new European record time. Hannah already held the British record at this distance, but had to watch Keri-Anne Payne of Stockport Metro's break her record in her heat with a time of 4:38.48.

However, Hannah was not to be outdone, and in her own heat she finished in 4:33.24, which meant she not only reclaimed her British record but also set a new European record at that distance, breaking the old record which had stood for seven years. In fact Hannah's swim was so good that she was only two seconds off the world record time of 4:31.46 held by Australian Stephanie Rice.

Hannah met Keri-Anne in the final on Sunday (April 5) and both swimmers were unable to recreate their record breaking achievements of the heats, but Hannah took her second gold of the championships in a time of 4:37.41.

First Minister and Gordon MSP passed on congratulations to Hannah following her successes. Mr Salmond recently attended part of Hannah's training session at the Inverurie Swimming Centre.

Mr Salmond said: "Having met Hannah last week prior to her trials I would just like to congratulate her on her record breaking successes in Sheffield.

"I was greatly encouraged to see the wealth of sporting talent that exists within Gordon. I would like to wish Hannah all the best for the Olympics and am sure that she will continue her success in Beijing and make Scotland very proud."

Hannah is one of ten Scots who have made it into the GB swimming team for the Beijing Olympics and joins Aberdeen's David Carry and Robbie Renwick along with Kirsty Balfour, Caitlin McClatchey, Todd Cooper, Euan Dale, Kris Gilchrist, Andrew Hunter and Gregor Tait.