Swimming: Pressure is on but Hannah Miley aims to make a big splash in Delhi

The 16-year-old's fourth place in the 400m individual medley, although overshadowed by double gold medallists Caitlin McClatchey, David Carry and Gregor Tait, was arguably just as significant an achievement given her inexperience, and announced the arrival of a major talent.

Four years on, as she finalises her preparations for next month's Commonwealth Games in Delhi, Miley has attained the status of senior stateswoman in the team. The pressure is on: fourth place this time will be a major disappointment, not the pleasant surprise it was in 2006.

Fortunately, the 21-year-old from Aberdeenshire has the temperament to handle such pressure. She is in the form to deliver as well, as she showed last month when she won Great Britain's first gold medal at the European Championships in Budapest.

That performance, in a new record time for the championships, was a bit of a shock to Miley, whose training schedule was designed with the aim of peaking in Delhi. "It was unexpected, but it was nice to get a wee breakthrough," she said. "We all knew the Commonwealths were the big event of the summer. (But] I rested up a little bit for it, because it's an opportunity I couldn't really miss after missing the 2008 championships. The theory is by the time I get to Delhi I'll be in better shape - we'll see if that's true when the racing starts."

Having been ill both before Melbourne and in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, Miley hopes this time she will be in the best possible shape to compete. In common with her team-mates, however, she is aware that certain precautions will have to be taken in Delhi.

"The last Commonwealth Games I was ill about six weeks out. Going into Beijing I was ill a couple of weeks out. It's nice to go to a meet not being ill. We have to be really wary. (We need to] find out when to start acclimatising or getting used to taking more probiotic drinks. In Beijing they suggested increasing our Omega 3 intake because of the smog. It wasn't great, because I kept regurgitating that fishy taste."

In Delhi, she believes, one piece of advice will be paramount. "Be very OCD in terms of hand hygiene!

"Also take probiotics to help boost the immune system a couple of weeks beforehand. It's also important to make the changes now so that you're not asking your body to change too often and not knowing how it'll react."

A student at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Miley is coached by her father, Patrick, whose innovations include the Aquapacer, a device which helps swimmers monitor their speed in training. It is not the only novelty he has introduced to his daughter's training.

"He attaches a sponge to me when I'm doing breaststroke, for resistance, and for other strokes he attaches weights to the sponge so it sinks. It's one of the jumbo sponges you wash your car with - but it's dying a bit, disintegrating.

"My younger brother is not great at breaststroke so he appeared with two of the jumbo sponges tied to each other. Bless him, he pushed off and ground to a standstill instantly! But there's always a reason behind the ideas from my dad."

Miley's own success is proof of the practicality behind her father's thinking, and the down-to-earth approach both of her own family and of her friends and colleagues at the Garioch Amateur Swimming Club helps ensure she does not get carried away by that success. "When I got back to training [after winning European gold], it was nice to get in the pool and feel the same," she added.

"There was no big-headed cockiness, no strutting about as a European champion. It was nice to get back in and keep going. I didn't wear my medal to training, but I admit I do sleep with it next to my bed. I just felt proud and it made me feel more confident in what I was doing in training, and in all the crazy ideas my dad and I have, that it actually works."