Initially Samuel focused on short sprinting events, but by 2007 she had begun to focus more on long jump. She won in that discipline at the 2007 English Schools Championships and was runner-up the following year. In 2009, she switched to the triple jump and this immediately brought her higher up the national rankings: she won the English schools title, came fourth at the senior British Athletics Championships, and set a personal best of . She won the senior national title in the triple jump in 2010. She went on to compete at her first international competition soon after and was the silver medallist at the 2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics, setting a British junior record of to place second behind the favourite Dailenys Alcántara.