Borderer Rory McFadyen to represent UK at tetrathlon

Morebattle's Rory McFadyen in equine action (Photo: Jamie Agnew)

The 18-year-old, of Morebattle, is one of only two Scots in that 24-strong team, half of them male and the other half female, his countryman being Moray Turnbull, a member of East Stirlingshire Pony Club.

McFadyen will be the first Borderer to turn out for the UK at tetrathlon – a Pony Club discipline involving pistol-shooting, running, swimming and riding, essentially a variant of modern pentathlon but without fencing – for over 30 years, the region’s last representatives having been Stuart Nimmo and Callum Crawford back in the 1980s.

His team will travel to Ireland, Northern Ireland and England to compete against the Irish and other opposition from Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Canada.

Morebattle's Rory McFadyen on the run (Photo: Top Shots Photography)

The competition kicks off with a week at Punchestown, near Dublin, at the end of July, moving onto Necarne Castle, near Enniskillen, in early August before winding up at Offchurch, near Leamington Spa, in Warwickshire.

McFadyen has been a member of the Lauderdale Hunt’s branch of the Pony Club since the age of four, competing at showjumping, dressage and eventing.

He’s focused on tetrathlon over the last few years, though, notching up successes including winning the discipline’s Scottish boys’ open championship as a youth and making the top ten at the sport’s British championships south of the border for the last two years on the bounce.

The teenager’s been given tips from one of his predecessors en route to his UK team selection as Nimmo was his course tutor for a national certificate in agriculture he completed at Borders College’s Newtown St Boswells rural skills campus last year.

McFadyen, a Kelso parkrun regular, about to finish a higher national certificate in agriculture at Barony College, near Dumfries, and has been getting swimming coaching over there from Margaret Kane of Annan Alligators, as well as shooting practice with Kirsty Liddon near Lockerbie.

Looking ahead to this summer’s international competition, he said: “I’m pretty happy.

“It’s a great opportunity to represent the UK. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do anything like this so I think it’s pretty good that I am.

“I’m very much looking forward to it.”