Inverness resident Fergus Roberts, 31, has finished 10th in Norway’s Norseman Xtreme Triathlon, completing the gruelling 226km course in 11 hours and 13 minutes.
Fergus, who has worked for us for the past three years as a geotechnical engineer, took on the challenge alongside 250 competitors, including double Olympic triathlon champion Alistair Brownlee, who won Olympic gold in the triathlon at both London 2012 and Rio 2016.
For Fergus, the race represented the culmination of years of triathlon experience and a long-held ambition to take on the Norseman challenge. He said: “Racing Norseman is on every triathlete’s bucket list. I have known about the race for as long as I’ve been a triathlete, and it really lived up to the hype.
“The experience I had was incredible. I suffered as much as I imagined due to the nature of the course being so demanding, but there were definitely moments where I could enjoy being in the race and take in the amazing scenery of Norway.”
The challenge began before the race had even officially started, with Fergus and the other competitors boarding a ferry before dawn. At 4am, they set off across the Hardangerfjord, completing a 500m swim to the start line for the 5am race start. From there, they faced a grueling bike course followed by a mountain run through some of Norway’s most challenging terrain, finishing at Mount Gausta.
Fergus came out of the water in eighth position before beginning the 180km bike leg, which starts with a 35km climb. The bike proved to be his toughest discipline, and he reached the end of the cycling section in 17th position.
Supported throughout the race by a dedicated support crew, Fergus then began the marathon-length run, his strongest discipline. After 20km he was moving well, but the final section presented one of the race’s most notorious challenges.
“At 25km I joined Ewan Brown, my chosen support runner, for the final 17km. We had to tackle ‘Zombie Hill’, the iconic 10km alpine climb with 10-15% gradient,” said Fergus. “The lights started to go out on this section, and it was a matter of just getting to the finish line. Ewan and my brother-in-law, Niklas, helped me in the final kilometres and I managed to make it to the finish in 10th place.”
The result adds another significant achievement to Fergus’s triathlon career. He won the men’s race at Scotland’s Celtman Xtreme Triathlon in 2025, another event within the XTRI extreme triathlon series.
Reflecting on the Norseman experience, Fergus said the support of friends and family had been crucial to his success: “I was super happy to finish inside the top 10, topping off a very memorable day pushing my mental and physical limits alongside some of my closest friends and family.”
The achievement also highlights the breadth of interests and expertise within our Natural Power team, with Fergus balancing his professional role as a geotechnical engineer with a demanding training and racing program.
Ciaran Farrell, Managing Director at Natural Power, said: “Fergus’s achievement is a fantastic reflection of the determination, resilience and commitment he brings both to his work and to his life outside Natural Power. Finishing in the top 10 at an event as demanding as Norseman is an incredible accomplishment, particularly alongside athletes of Alistair Brownlee’s caliber. We’re hugely proud of Fergus and delighted to celebrate such a remarkable achievement by a member of our Inverness team.”