When standard grades revision forced Scottish climbing champion Natalie Berry to cut her training sessions, she gave up any hopes of a medal in this year's European Youth Series.
Then, when the exams meant the 15-year-old had to miss the first two rounds of the six-contest championships, she resigned herself to losing her third place ranking in Europe.
To add to the challenge, Berry, of Bearsden, faced the competition, organised by the International Federation of Sport Climbing, as the youngest climber in her new age category, the Youth A group.
But against these odds, the slightly-built teenager not only took a podium position in the overall European rankings but also won a gold in the final round in Kranj, Slovenia, a week ago.
"I really had no expectations of doing well this season as I knew my school work had to come first," says Berry. "For months leading up to the standard grades I was hardly doing any climbing or training. And I missed out on quite a few other practise competitions, too."
At Berry's first EYS round in July in Germany she came a disappointing ninth. A fortnight later in Poland she showed more promise, coming second.
Although in October in Austria, her overall placing slipped again as she took seventh, it was last month's contest in Kranj that proved her finest climb.
After two qualifying climbs, 10 girls were scheduled to compete in the final, an extreme-graded and highly technical climb of up to 70 metres.
"I was up third and I just had it in my mind that I was going to do the very best I could on that climb. But I really didn't have that high a hope," admits Berry.
"I think mentally, though, I was a lot more relaxed than the previous years, simply because my expectations were lower.
"I kept my nerve well on the challenging route and climbed to just a couple of moves short of the top of the wall before I ran out of time. I was really pleased with my climb."
But there then followed a nerve-wracking wait for the other participants, some as old as 18, to climb.
"The last climber up was Juliane Wurm, a brilliant climber from Germany," adds Berry. "She had already won three of the previous rounds and was runner-up in another round so I couldn't believe it when she came off four moves below me.
"I was so excited about my performance then, because I knew I'd come first."
The win, which is the first gold any junior female member of the British Team has ever taken in Europe, also gave Berry an overall ranking of third for the EYS - for the second year in a row. Last year, she took a bronze in the younger Youth B group.
And to top her success, the Bearsden Academy pupil also became the highest ranked girl in her school this summer after achieving eight standards all at grade one.
"It has been a surprisingly good year," she says.
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