CHARLESTOWN cyclist Joe Nally will pedal for Scotland in September after being selected to ride in the UK School Games.

The annual multi-sport event will see 1600 of the most talented athletes from across the country compete in Manchester and the 15-year-old Woodmill High School will take part in the boys' track events at the National Cycling Centre.

This year's games, which run from 4th-7th September, will be the first time that Nally has taken part and he is one of only four male cyclists from Scotland.

His selection comes after a successful year on the bike so far, with Nally winning the youth support race for the Pearl Izumi Tour Series in Edinburgh in May before tasting victory in the closed circuit 'crit' event in Northern Ride's Malton Town Centre Races series.

After enjoying a successful trip to the Basque region of Spain last summer in an exchange trip organised by British Cycling, Nally has made a second visit there this month and has so far compete in two races.

A difficult opener over 51km saw him narrowly miss out on a top three finish after being involved in a collision with three other riders, before he finished a credible sixth in a 48km race on Saturday that was over flat terrain until what he described as a "really hard hill 4km from the end." Proud mum Ruth Downie said, "There are two age bands for the Games and Joe is one of the two who are under-16, meaning that he can go again next year. The coaches have been looking at them all year but eight of them had to go to Meadowbank for the selection day, and five were picked to include a reserve.

"He applied to take part last year and didn't get in, so this is the first time he will take part. He doesn't do a lot of track racing because of where we live, so he's been doing really well.

"He won the road race in Malton and the other two who were on the podium make up three of the four to take part in the games for Scotland. I'm really proud of him." On his return from Spain, Nally is set to take part in three days of racing in Ireland next month as part of preparation for the Games.