By Mike Rowbottom

Mhairi_SpenceMay 3 - Mhairi Spence (pictured) and Freyja Prentice, already medallists in this year's modern pentathlon World Cup series, will both compete at the third World Cup of the year in Hungary next week.


Spence is currently 17th in the world rankings and heads the 2011 World Cup standings.

She produced the best World Cup performance of her career to date to win silver at the opening World Cup of the year in Palm Springs in February and followed that up with 16th in Italy earlier this month.

Spence is originally from Inverness but now lives in Bath and trains at the Pentathlon GB High Performance Centre at the University of Bath.

Prentice, still only 20, won the first World Cup medal of her career earlier this month by taking bronze at World Cup 2 in Sassari, Italy.

Originally from Aberdeen, she is currently ranked ninth in the world senior rankings and leads the world junior rankings.

Beijing 2008 Olympic Games silver medallist Heather Fell also goes into World Cup 3.

The Devonian finished 10th in Palm Springs earlier this year and is ranked 13th in the world.

And world number 30 Katy Burke, originally from Cleveleys near Blackpool, completes the British women's team for Hungary.

She just missed out on the medals at Palm Springs in February, equalling the best World Cup performance of her career to date by finishing fourth.

An eight-strong British team will compete at Szazhalombatta just south of Budapest with the aim of staking their claims for places on GB teams for the World Cup Final and European Championships in July.

Both the World Cup Final and the European Championships take place in the UK and provide the first opportunities for British athletes to achieve qualification places for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The competition for places on the GB women's team is particularly intense, with six athletes featuring in the top-40 in the world.

Only four per gender from each nation can compete at each round of the World Cup and only a maximum of two per gender per nation can compete at the Olympics.

Beijing 2008 Olympians Sam Weale from East Coker near Yeovil and Nick Woodbridge from Shropshire head the British men's challenge at World Cup 3.

The pair both feature in the world's top-30 – with Weale ranked at 21 and Woodbridge at 30.

Woodbridge came seventh in Palm Springs in February, but the pair both missed out on the final at Sassari.

They are joined in Hungary by 20-year-old Jamie Cooke - originally from Cheltenham - ranked 63rd in the world senior rankings and sixth in the world junior rankings, and who finished 21st in Palm Springs.

Robert Flack, aged 21 and originally from Shropshire, contests only his second overseas World Cup.

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