Superstar Hannah Payton picked up bronze and silver medals last weekend at the Down Syndrome European Championships in Southampton.
The 18-year-old has been swimming since she was just four and counts among her specialities front crawl, freestyle and butterfly.
Hannah travelled down to Southampton with her parents on Friday 27 March to take part in the Championships.
Her mum explained: “The competition was really tough because Hannah was put in the higher groups, so was actually competing against the European Champions!”
Despite the fierce competition, Hannah won silver in 25m Butterfly and bronze in 50m Freestyle. There was great camaraderie between all the swimmers at the event, and as a result Hannah made lots of new friends.
Hannah also took part in the Sunderland Local Special Olympics Regionals the previous weekend, picking up a gold medal in the Relay and silver medals in the 200m Freestyle and Sprint Butterfly.
She has now been chosen to swim for Great Britain in the French National Summer Games in Lyon in June, for which she will be the only competitor representing the North West.
On Saturday 18 May Hannah’s family will be joining the team from local charity Millie Mae’s Embarkment in a bag pack at ASDA in Swinton to fundraise for Hannah’s upcoming competitions.
If you would like to volunteer your time to help fundraise at the bag pack, please contact Nicola Payton at hannahourchampion@outlook.com.
