In the past few months, Mhairi Spence has fallen off her horse, damaging a wrist, broken her gun, suffered a debilitating virus and injured a leg. The 21-year-old rising star of British modern pentathlon has also managed a fourth-place finish at the World Cup at Millfield School, Somerset, and today, in Hungary, has her first chance to register qualification points for the Beijing Olympics.

For the uninitiated, modern pentathlon means shooting, fencing, swimming, riding and running – all the events completed in one day. “It’s weird that pentathlon is one of the oldest sports and yet so many people know so little about it,” Spence, based at Bath University, said. “It’s a shame it’s so misunderstood because we’re like the core of the Olympics. Sport has become very commercial, but there’s a place for tradition. Critics should come and see what it’s all about.”

Hungarians need no such invitation. “Pentathlon is a huge sport over there,” Spence said. “The crowds are fantastic and because of its popularity we compete there a lot. This will be my fourth time.”

The number of entries in Szekesfehervar means that this World Cup will be split into two. “When there are more than 36 competitors we have semi-finals, so we do the fence, shoot, swim and run on Thursday and the five-event final will be on Saturday,” Spence said.

Sometimes there are also team events, so it is easy to understand why Spence describes pentathlon as “crazily exhausting”. Some venues are more relaxing than others, with Millfield top of Spence’s list.

“It’s rare to have all the facilities in one place like they are in Somerset,” she said. “We did a World Cup in Cairo recently and each event was an hour away from our base, which makes it a very long day.”

Exuberance could be Spence’s middle name, but some of her passion for this latest World Cup comes from knowing that the Great Britain squad is poised to win more medals. Georgina Harland won at Millfield, where Spence had led until the final event.

“I was inspired by the women’s team that was so dominant around the time of the Sydney Olympics in 2000,” Spence said. “Georgina is the only one left still competing from that time and the rest of us are quite young, but we won the senior Europeans last year and want to rule the world like the other girls did. It’s only a matter of time before we do.”

Spence, who comes from Inverness, where her mother is a kilt maker and her father a scientist, is building an enviable reputation. Her highlights in 2006 were a bronze medal at the European Championships in Budapest and a silver at the Junior World Championships in China. “Shanghai was amazing,” Spence said. “Winning the team gold and relay gold there was an incredible high. Everyone was talking about how strong the British girls were. Best of all for me was that I actually moved up a place during the run, which I never do.”

She is not, she said, a natural 3,000 metres runner. “The five disciplines are so diverse that nobody can be a master of everything,” Spence said. “That’s the wonderful thing about our sport. It caters for the physical athletes and for the skill-based athletes and in no other field could you put those two different types together. It’s fascinating.”

Spence is an assured horse rider and at ease with a sword, but pistol shooting is her most potent skill. There was consternation, then, when her trigger began misfiring last month, two weeks before Millfield. “Guns are complex and we’re not really sure what went wrong,” she said. “Thankfully, I shot well with the new one. You have to laugh these things off.”

The technical and physical mishaps that have dogged Spence’s preparations would not be funny if the Olympics were at stake, but the qualification period is May 2007 to May 2008. “There are several ways to reach Beijing,” Spence said. “It’s about getting enough points, but the top eight at the Europeans will qualify automatically, as will the top three at the worlds in August. The winner of the World Cup final also gets a place.”

Spence, though, is trying not to think too much about China. “Sometimes, when I’m running along and I’m dying, I can’t help but imagine what it would be like,” she said. “It drives me on because I really want to make that Olympic dream come true.”

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