SAMANTHA Murray enhanced her hopes of securing a place in the Great Britain Modern Pentathlon team for London 2012 after winning the Budapest Cup in Hungary.

The Clitheroe ace (right) has been in top form this year and her success follows her impressive sixth place finish at the opening World Cup of the year in Charlotte, the USA earlier this month.

The former Bowland High School pupil came fifth in the fencing in Budapest, second in the swim and went clear in the ride, to lead the field going into combined run/shoot.

She clocked a time of 12 mins44.34 secs for the run/shoot to take gold.

The 22-year-old finished 23 seconds ahead of GB team-mate Kate French, who is currently number two in the world junior rankings.

Murray’s performance at the Budapest Cup following on from her victory at the Hungarian Indoor Championships, also in Budapest.

She is currently 25th in the senior world rankings, but is the fifth British woman in the rankings and one of six in the world’s top 35.

Murray now lives in Bath and combines training at the Pentathlon GB High Performance Centre at the University of Bath with studying for a degree in French and Politics at the University.

Murray is in the GB team for the two World Cups of the year, at Szazhalombatta in Hungary and Rostov in Russia next month.

It means she has a chance of being included in the British team for the World Championships in May – the next chance for athletes to achieve the Olympic qualifying standard.