Charlie Brown quite a character in sport

The talented 12-year-old, from Cleobury Mortimer, was successful in the under-15 section of the West Midlands Winter Tetrathlon in Solihull.

Tetrathlon is similar to the five-event pentathlon, but discards fencing and shooting to leave swimming, riding and running.

Unlike his cartoon namesake, serially unsuccessful on the baseball diamond, Brown impressed in tetrathlon against more experienced competitors to continue his fine form of late.

In November, he came seventh out of 42 entrants in a national biathlon competition, also at the Tudor Grange Leisure Centre in Solihull. He missed out on the top six prize winners by just three points.

Proud dad Martin, along with his wife Elizabeth, both have background in the sport of pentathlon and are delighted to see their son compete successfully.

He said: "Charlie has done very well over the last couple of months. He hasn't been doing the pentathlon for very long at all.

"He hasn't done fencing at all yet and he is new to some of the types of shooting.

"The age for competing is based on how old you are in that December, so Charlie would have been 13 and hence too old to compete in under-13s.

"The sport isn't the most popular, so there weren't too many involved at the Winter Tetrathlon event – but he finished inside the top 10 from nearly 50 in November."

The tetrathlon saw Brown shoot from a 10m distance, one-handed with a 1.77 air pistol, for the first time.

On his way to success, the Lacon Childe School pupil finished with a total of 62 points from a possible 100 in the shooting range.

He completed the 100m swim in one minute and 14 seconds before running 1,600m in five minutes and 31 seconds.

Martin said: "He coped with it fantastically. It was certainly different for him, he's done some shooting with the local pony club, but not like that."

Brown, with the help of his parents, spends a lot of time perfecting his sporting promise in Ludlow as the family make regular trips across Clee Hill.

He turns out for Ludlow Football Club juniors, as well as swimming for their club. Ludlow Pony Club has also been a base that the multi-talented youngster has used to hone his talent.

Martin said: "Pony clubs are a key for youngsters getting involved in this sort of sport. The pentathlon body has a good relationship with clubs and it's a good place to start with the riding.

"We bought Charlie a pony when he was young, called Tommy – it has a big influence on him growing up. His pony at the moment is named Cymru."

Martin and Elizabeth met through being involved with the sport and a local pony club and were keen to get Charlie and younger son Tom, 10, into the mix.

Tom had been set to join brother Charlie in the winter event at Solihull, but missed out with a bout of sickness.

Martin added: "It was how myself and Liz met. We've always had ambitions for Charlie and Tom to get involved – we're quite competitive parents!

"His grandparents were big athletes and he's a strong runner and swimmer. It's absolutely brilliant seeing him compete out there. I used to run a bit but he's better than I ever was!"

Brown's biathlon success in November was enough to see him qualify for the English Talent Programme, he will decide whether or not to join.

He is set to compete tomorrow in national championship qualifiers.