With the World Championships just two weeks away, modern pentathlete Kerry Prise, winner of the Aberdeen Sports Council Amateur female award for 2009, is making an equally impressive mark on the 2010 season.

The 17 year old Grampian Institute of Sport (GIS) supported athlete was part of the British girls' team which won this month's Youth (under 19) European Championships in Bulgaria. In the individual event she finished ninth.

Kerry is relatively new in the sport. "I started pentathlon about a year and a half ago although I did other sports before," she said. "When I was really young I did horse riding, and I always did running and swimming. Then I picked up fencing two years ago."

Shooting and running are currently her strongest events. She self manages her programme but has coaches for each of the individual disciplines and is a member of a long list of clubs - Aberdeen Athletics Club, Aberdeen City Fencing Club, Bennachie Pony Club, Northern Saltires Modern Pentathlon Club and Westhill Swimming Club.

In March she was selected for the Grampian Institute of Sport, part of sportscotland's area institute network which focuses on preparing Scotland's best athletes to perform on the world stage by providing high performance expertise. The GIS has supported British team modern pentathlete Freyja Prentice for three years.

"I started Strength & Conditioning training about a month ago after I had profiling," said Kerry. "It's all new but it has been good and I'm sure it will make a difference."

Next on her race calendar is the Youth World Championships in Sweden (9-14 June), an event which holds eight qualifying places for this August's Youth Olympics in Singapore.

In her short career she has already competed at this level, last summer's world championships, which was her first ever international event and an occasion she recalls as "quite daunting but a good experience".

Long term the Olympics are Kerry's aim. For now she enjoys the diversity of the sport and is not broadcasting her goals. Her aim is simply to "do the best I can".