Tough competition in Britain is bringing the best out of Island gymnast Laura Murphy in her build-up for this summer's Pan-Am Games.

The 18-year-old, who is studying for her A-levels at Wrekin College in Shropshire, England, helped her club, Park-Wrekin, to third place in the British National Team Championships this month.

And last month, Murphy took the individual honours as highest-scoring gymnast at the British Independent Schools' Championships, hosted and won by Wrekin.

Murphy, who competed for Bermuda in the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur last September, has benefited from training with some of the UK's best gymnasts at the country's top facility.

Two of her Park-Wrekin team-mates are in the British national senior squad and a third is in the junior national team.

And the club trains at the National Gymnastics Training Centre, which is based at the huge sports complex at Lilleshall, Shropshire.

Park-Wrekin boasts nine elite gymnasts and making the squad of six for the national team championships at Bognor Regis was an achievement in itself for Murphy.

That the club, which had finished sixth in the 1998 championships and was up against 23 other clubs, took the bronze medal was a measure of the standard at which Murphy is competing.

The competition limits gymnasts to three disciplines and Murphy did well in the beam, bars and vault, but never got the chance to perform her favourite floor exercise.

Eddie Murphy, Laura's father, said his daughter was reaping the benefits of being in such a competitive environment.

"The training facilities are first-class, so that helps. But what has helped her most is that she is in a programme with a lot of high-level competitors and she has had to make a step up to keep up with them,'' he said.

Murphy, who trains under former UK national coach Colin Still and his wife Christine at Park-Wrekin, will continue her build-up to the Pan-Ams in Winnipeg, Canada, in July, with at least two more major meets.

In June she will take part in the Welsh Open Invitational and the following month, she will compete in the British Individual Championships in Guilford.

Laura Murphy