SAMANTHA Murray of Hyndburn Athletic Club has earned a dream trip to Switzerland and Germany with the Great Britain World Class Performance Team.

At the end of the month the 12-year-old will spend 11 days away competing in the Youth Championships in the modern pentathlon and modern tetrathlon.

The pentathlon combines fencing, shooting, show jumping, swimming and cross country running, while the tetrathlon includes four of the same elements but there is no horse riding.

Samantha, who is a pupil at Ribblesdale Technology College in Clitheroe, is a talented cross country runner and won the Year 7 Lancashire Schools Championship last winter.

However, it was her swimming club, Clitheroe Dolphins, who introduced her to multi-events two years ago when they took her to a biathlon - run and swim - at Kirkham.

Soon afterwards she decided she wanted to shoot, and fortunately there were facilities in a barn next to Edisford Bridge Pool where she could practice under Walter Manley.

Fencing with Dave Varey at Pendle Sports Centre followed before she tried her first tetrathlon at Telford.

She has always been a keen horsewoman and rides with her grandmother who has livery stables in Longton, so she was properly prepared when she made her pentathlon debut at Millfield School last August.

So far she has managed to combine the different events and a fortnight ago became the county champion in two different sports.

The Saturday brought her a running title when she won the under 13s 1500m, then it was fencing on Sunday with victory in the epee.

In the semi-final she defeated Hyndburn and Dolphins team-mate Louise Highton who is British Under 14s Champion. This Saturday she will ring the changes again as she takes up an invitation to train with the British Shooting Squad.

At Berne in Switzerland she will be contesting the tetrathlon against rivals of a similar age from eight different countries, but in Berlin the competition in the pentathlon will be much stronger.

She will be competing as an under 16 and as many as 15 countries could be involved.

Her positive attitude will doubtless help her through, mum Debbie says: "She's got that kind of edge, gives everything her best shot, takes it seriously, and has a desire to compete and win."

Those qualities have made her an ambassador for sport and she has been honoured by being chosen to carry the Commonwealth Games Jubilee Baton when it passes through Blackburn in July.