The 24-year-old from Clitheroe in Lancashire thus became Britain's fourth individual woman modern pentathlon world champion following Wendy Norman in 1982, Steph Cook in 2001 and Mhairi Spence in 2012.

Murray started her final event 16 seconds behind Hungary's Sarolta Kovacs, and five seconds adrift of Russia's Donata Rimsaite, but moved through and into the lead after the second of the four 800 metres running legs, finishing with 1,411 points and a combined event time of 12min 00.06sec, the second fastest of the day.

China's Qian Chen and Wanxia Liang also took advantage as the leaders slipped down the order, taking silver and bronze respectively as they finished eight and 19 seconds behind the Briton to earn 1,403 and 1,384 points.

Germany's Lena Schoneborn, the 2008 Olympic gold medallist, missed the podium by just four points, and Lithuania's Laura Asadauskaite, the defending and reigning Olympic champion, was just three points adrift in fifth.

Running power was a key element for Britain's Samantha Murray, who began the concluding run/shoot event in the World Championships in third place and came through to win ©UIPM

"It doesn't feel real," said Murray, who also set a modern pentathlon short course world record for the 200m freestyle of 2:03.84 and - with Freyja Prentice and Kate French - helped Britain to team silver behind China, with bronze going to Belarus.

"I've worked so hard for this and I've been aiming for this competition for a while.

"To be able to say I'm world champion is absolutely fantastic.

"I dreamed of this so often and now my dream has come true.

"When I started to relax and smile today all the work I have put in came through.

"I couldn't believe how easy the combined event felt.

"I was really on top of it today."

Murray now lives in Bath, where she trains at the Pentathlon GB National Training Centre at the University of Bath.

"My coaches Istvan [Nemeth] Frici [Foldes] and Jan [Bartu] have had so much faith in me," she said. 

They've given me so much support and pushed me when I needed it and my training partners have been great.

"I owe a massive thank you to so many people."

She also paid tribute to Spence, who did not  make the final today but helped Murray during her campaign.

""Having someone of her experience helping me was fantastic, " she said.

"I owe her a huge thank you."

China's Qian Chen won individual silver and team gold at the Modern Pentathlon World Championships in Warsaw ©UIPM

Murray had started her campaign today by winning 18 of her 34 fencing bouts to put her joint 14th with 208 pentathlon points as Rimsaite led the field with 25 victories for 250 points.

Her swim replaced the time of 2:04.26 set by Kovacs at the European Championships in Medway three years ago, earning her 329 pentathlon points and taking her total to 537, 10 behind Kovacs, the new overall leader.

Murray kept up her momentum with a steady round in the riding arena. She went clear, but incurred six time penalties to add 294 points to her total.

That meant she went to the combined event in third with 831 points.

Britain's Samantha Murray set a modern pentathlon world record in the 200 metres freestyle as she won the World Championships title ©UIPM

Bartu, Pentathlon GB Performance Director, said: "It was a world class performance.

"It's fantastic to see her back because it hasn't been easy for her over the last year.

"She decided to go for it and this is the reward for the hard work.

"She showed maximum composure in the combined event today.

"From her first shot she was absolutely relaxed and she kept a fantastic rhythmic.

"It was an amazing improvement on how she was shooting last year and it's a credit to Istvan Nemeth and the coaching team, and to the English Institute of Sport team who have all contributed to this success.

"It was a well deserved silver medal for the team today.

"They were beaten by a better team – the Chinese were almost perfect today."

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