A YOUNG swimming ace from Northallerton was crowned sprint champion this week at a national competition in Scotland.

Hannah Creelman, 15, a student at Northallerton college, won the under 15s 50m freestyle event at the Scottish national championships in Glasgow.

Hannah, already Yorkshire individual medley champion, qualified to take part in the race because her mother is Scottish. She trounced eight other finalists in the event and achieved a personal best time of 27.95 seconds.

"I have wanted to crack 27 seconds for ages," she said. "It was a good time because the pool was a 50m pool and that is slower than I am used to."

Hannah was cheered all the way by her Scottish side of the family, including her grandmother Mrs Katie Campbell. "My granny has been quite ill so this was the first time she has ever seen me swim."

The teenager put her success down to a spell of work experience at the swimming pool in Thirsk, where she trains with her coach Dave Smith as a member of the Thirsk White Horse swim team.

Her dream is to swim for England and she moves a step closer to achieving her goal in August when she travels to Sheffield for the English national championships, where she will compete in the 200m individual medley and the 50 and 100m freestyle.