A NIFTY Ferndown teenager can solve the Rubik’s cube faster than any other woman in the country.
Hannah Ibe, 13, stole the crown at her second competition with a jaw-dropping average time of 18.09 seconds.
But her best time at Sunday’s Rapid Dash Open, which was judged on an average of five attempts, was 11.36 seconds.
Proud mum Ruth Ibe, who bought Hannah her first Rubik’s in Christmas 2010, said: “She did the first layer and then left it on her bedroom carpet.
“Until August it just sat there when she picked it up and managed to solve it.
“Then she started looking on the internet for faster ways, until one day I said she must be good enough to enter a competition.”
Hannah, from Ferndown Upper School, had a panic attack on her way to her first contest in Bristol, but held her nerve at the Rapid Dash in Guildford.
“It was the fastest round in the country any female has ever done,” Ruth, of Barns Road, said.
“People were congratulating her on being the fastest woman in Britain on average. But she’s still determined to get better.”
She added: “I just can’t believe she has done this. It’s something very few people can do.
“In the 11.36 second round, it almost looked like she wasn’t looking at the cube, her hands were going so fast.”
Hannah, the eldest of five children, said: “Doing it so quick was quite cool.
“I just like solving the Rubik’s. I was quite confident at this competition, but most of the contestants were a lot older than me.”
Hannah’s maths has improved since she started playing and she wants to move onto the Pyramix and the mind-boggling Rubik’s clock, a two-sided mechanical puzzle with nine clock faces.
“I want to take it further, get to the national finals and get a World Record. At the moment that’s 5.66 seconds.”
Hannah's tip: solve the Rubik’s in layers
“Go across the first two, then do the top and finish the last bit off,” she said, “It took me a couple of days to figure out how to do it, then I got it down to four or five minutes.
“It’s quite hard to teach someone.”
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