Shooting star Isobel Mactaggart targeting further success in Germany, Hungary and Taiwan

To boldly go where no one in your family has gone before and trek towards sporting stardom without such inspiration and the benefit of that sort of experience is far from unheard of either, but it’s fair to say that seeing Isobel Mactaggart – also from Denholm, like Patterson and his dad Derrick – representing Great Britain and ranked in Scotland’s top three at shooting came as a bit of a surprise to her parents.

The 21-year-old is now Scotland’s top junior and No 3 senior pistol-shooter.

It is possibly retrospectively reassuring for residents of her home village to know that Mactaggart did not grow up firing off rounds at targets while out and about.

Her family had no experience or knowledge of pistol-shooting and their daughter grew up with friends playing hockey, swimming and riding her pony, so for parents Kate and Jeremy to see her on television taking on world-leading opposition from China, India or Germany is quite an eye-opener.

“My family were all new to this sort of shooting, so they’re learning about it as we go, but I’m very grateful to them for supporting me and driving me all over the country when I got started” she explained.

“It’s actually a great sport and a very welcoming community with great people, and it has given me such great experiences that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.

“You learn to shoot, of course, but you also learn a lot about yourself and a lot about dedication, mindfulness and time management.”

A shooter also needs to be fit as there are few sports that require mind and body to work so closely in tandem to keep the heartbeat slow.

The former Jedburgh Grammar Campus pupil is mastering that art pretty well, judging by her rise through the ranks over the last few years.

It began with some friends at the Duke of Buccleuch Pony Club encouraging her to join them and then moving on to tetrathlon, a variant of the modern pentathlon consisting of shooting, swimming, running and cross-country riding.

Mactaggart had a go and loved the competition straight away, leading to an invitation, at the age of just 12, to join a new British Shooting programme seeking to nurture up-and-coming talent.

That involved regular seven-hour journeys to Bisley, south-west of London, but that was a price Mactaggart and her family were happy to pay.

“It was a challenge at first because I just wanted to play hockey with my friends at Jed Grammar but, at the same time, it was exciting to be doing something no one else was doing,” she said.

“It was a big shock to the system travelling so far and the hours you had to put into practice, but it taught me a lot about sacrifices.

“One of the earliest memories I have was of winning the British schools championships when I was in S4 at Jed Grammar. It was a very close final and I was second until the last shot and won by 0.1 or something. That fuelled a real hunger for more.”

It also fuelled an interest in the sport’s Great Britain selectors to see more of the Borders lass, and over the last few years she has gone on to represent GB in junior world cups in Germany, junior European championships in Bulgaria and the world university championships in New Delhi.

Her last competition was the British series finals in March in the West Midlands and she is GB’s sole female shooter at the junior world championships to be held in Suhl in Germany next month, with the Hungarian open in Budapest and university championships in Taiwan following later in the year.

Mactaggart, now in the third year of a sport and business management degree at Stirling University, is still being given backing by Scottish Borders Council’s athlete support programme, set up to help athletes across the region step up to the next level of national competitions and stay there by funding gym access, physiotherapy and strength and conditioning training, all of which Mactaggart says have helped her build up strength and cover the cost of travelling far and wide.

“Scotland has developed a good reputation in shooting, mostly from Seonaid McIntosh and her sister Jen, now Jen Ross, who have done a lot for the sport, but there are a lot of us now following them and flying the flag for Scotland,” she added.

“Personally, I just love the buzz of competing. Shooting is not a sport I or my family would have thought I’d be doing when I was at primary school in Denholm, but it just shows you never know what’s round the corner.

“I got the chance to try it and it has brought me some amazing experiences, the chance to see some amazing places and meet great people.”