TEENAGE athlete Ben van der Helstrate put in arguably the most eye-catching performance in the third of Wight Tri's Splash and Dash summer series of events, the Gurnard Aquathlon.

The aquathlon was a choice of either a 250m or 600m swim, followed by one or two laps of a 2.5km run from Gurnard Sailing Club, turning at Egypt Point in Cowes.

The weather conditions were not in the swimmers' favour — met by rough seas at the club, but they worked hard and completed the swim.

The nominated event was won by Chris Hughes, who completed the short course in 17mins 20secs — 40 seconds inside his nominated time. 

The fastest male was Ben, 15, who posted a rapid swim time of 7mins 37secs to hold off experienced triathlete Chris Hill by a seven-second margin, to win in 28.38.

Lucy Doorly (36.13) was the fastest female on the long course, with Beth Hughes and Alan Jones posting the fastest short course times of 19.45 and 16.35 respectively.

The next event is the Yaverland Aquabike on Friday, August 11, starting at 6.30pm. The final event in the series, the Gurnard Aquathlon 2, will take place on Friday, August 25.