Teenager is making a splash ahead of schedule and is now on course for Beijing

HANNAH Miley clicked her pen and handed in her last exam paper, Higher Psychology, said a few frantic farewells and dashed out to the car. She had 20 minutes to get to Dyce train station and her father, Patrick, who doubles as coach to Scotland's most promising swimmer, issued brief nuggets of advice as the teenager hurriedly changed clothes in the back. By the evening Miley had boarded a plane from Edinburgh and was in France, embarking on a full-time sporting career.

The Aberdeenshire girl is 17 and holds both British records available to medley swimmers. In this country we are moved to say "only 17", but in more hungry aquatic cultures this indicates that she is on course, rather than ahead of schedule, to take on the world.

The week before last was the most prolific of Miley's life, as she competed in the opening meet of the Mare Nostrum series, in Canet, and set new British benchmarks for the 200 and 400 metres.

This week she will be in Glasgow for the Scottish nationals, full of the joys of summer, revelling in her new life. She flies in on Wednesday to contemplate a schedule of six or seven events in three days at Tollcross Park, before joining Patrick on a Saturday afternoon flight to Majorca for more training.

Everything is geared towards the Olympics, but which one? Shortly after London won the right to host the 2012 event, a national newspaper earmarked the then 15-year-old as a potential gold medallist. But such has been her progress that Miley has a good chance of making an impression in Beijing next year. The record that made the swimming community swoon in Canet was her new mark over 200m. A time of 2mins 14.57secs rewrote the standard set by Susan Rolph in 1999. But the longer event offers a more immediate route to Olympic finals.

After a few abortive attempts, Miley became the first British woman to break the symbolic 4.40 mark in the 400m in Canet. Her time of 4:39.91 - which pushed Commonwealth champion Stephanie Rice of Australia and America's Olympic silver medallist Kaitlin Sandeno on to the side of the podium - would have won her the silver medal at the world championships in March, where Edinburgh's Kirsty Balfour was the only British competitor to climb so high.

The hitch is that Miley, in a rare lapse of composure, didn't swim well at the trials and failed to qualify for the Melbourne showpiece. It was the first self-inflicted setback of her career, and an important one in shaping her subsequent direction.

"Everything happens for a reason and not qualifying for the worlds gave me a huge kick up the backside," says Miley. "I would have trained hard anyway, but I trained especially hard through anger at letting myself and my dad down. So in a way it was good that I didn't go, as I can't really predict what time I would have done at the worlds.

"I was satisfied with both records last week but I suppose, if I had to choose, it would be the 400, as I thought the 4:40 barrier would be hard to break. Also, it shows that the swim in Manchester in retaining her British title in March, she swam 4:40.07 wasn't just a one-off, and that I am progressing.

"I think it was important to break the 4:40 mark as more and more people are within the 4.30s, so to be competitive at a world level it is good that I can now be in that zone. It actually didn't hit me that I had beaten Rice and Sandeno. I know that sounds silly but, honestly, it was after the medal ceremony that it dawned on me that I had beaten a Commonwealth champion and an Olympic silver medallist in one. It was encouraging."

Miley's 400m time ranked her fifth in the world this year. To put things in a Beijing perspective, the "woman" rated two places higher is China's Li Xuanxu, who is 13. However, all but one of the swimmers in Miley's field are within reach; the one out in front is Katie Hoff, the American who set a world record of 4:32.89 to win in Melbourne by more than seven seconds.

"I think my best chance for Beijing is the 400 because it is quite an open event," says Miley, who is taking a year out before considering offers to study biology at Glasgow and Edinburgh in 2008/09. "It is quite mixed throughout each country so it stands out as the best chance of possibly doing well - but that is if I qualify in the first place.

"I'm in hard training at the moment so I will take the nationals as they come. I'm not really expecting anything great as I plan to train hard through the summer and compete at the USA nationals. That will be the first time, hopefully, that I can compete against Katie Hoff."

For somebody so decisive about her life choices, Miley is not yet in a position to know where her strengths lie in swimming. The medley is a convenient outlet because, as she says: "I don't really know what my strongest stroke is. I can definitely say that it is not breaststroke, but that's not to say it is rubbish. It is coming along slowly but surely."

Her Scottish nationals tilt begins with Thursday's 400m medley and 200m freestyle, probably up against Scotland's Commonwealth champion Caitlin McClatchey. The 100m breaststroke, 200m backstroke and 800m freestyle are to follow on Friday, the first race offering Miley a head-to-head with Britain's top swimmer, breaststroke queen Balfour. Gregor Tait and Kris Gilchrist are expected to complete a stellar line-up at Tollcross Park.

Miley is tagged in UK swimming circles as "the future of the sport". That promise is beginning to infringe on the present.