Elgin Academy pupil Callum McWhirter describes "brilliant" experience of representing Scotland at badminton in international Quadrangular under-15 tournament in Dublin
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A Moray schoolboy has celebrated his first international call-up in the sport of badminton.
Elgin Academy pupil Callum McWhirter (13) was selected to play for Scotland at the under-15 quadrangular tournament in Dublin against the best young players in Britain and Ireland.
Callum, who first took up the sport at Elgin's West End Primary nearly seven years ago, helped Scotland to second place in the tournament behind England and ahead of Wales and hosts Ireland.
"I played a total of nine games in the singles and doubles," he said. "The experience was brilliant.
"The top 20 boys in the UK for under-15 age group were all there and we finished second overall, when Scotland were fourth last year."
Callum is part of a Badminton Scotland Regional Performance Squad and travels twice a week to Aberdeen for training sessions.
He also gets private coaching in Fortrose and attends club sessions at Moray College in Elgin, meaning he is hitting shuttlecocks almost every day of the week.
Next month he will compete in the Highland Junior Restricted competition at Inverness Leisure Centre, where he will play in the boys singles and doubles and partner up with Scotland team-mate Abigail Barrie in the mixed doubles.
His longer-term aim is to represent Scotland again in the future and he has his eye on an under-17 international team event being played in Slovenia.
