Isle of Man triathlete Will Draper was victorious in the Challenge Samarkand event in Uzbekistan at the weekend.

The St John’s man finished the middle distance event in 3 hours 40 minutes and 42 seconds clocking the quickest time over the bike leg of 1:52.14. This helped him overhaul early leader Max Stapley with 13km to go of the gruelling run leg.

In the end, Draper finished 53 seconds ahead of fellow Brit Stapley with Serbia’s Ognjen Stojanovic in third. It was Draper’s second challenge victory of the season having triumphed in Gran Canaria in April.

The 25 year old said after Sunday’s race: ‘It’s been an incredible season - I’m riding a high and everything is moving in the right direction.

‘It was a really tough day out there but I knew the dynamic of this race would be that you’d have to do a lot of the work on your own.

‘I rode the start of the bike hard and Max kept a gap. I actually thought if I don’t catch at the end of the bike that’s a good sign as there’s more chance there’ll be a drop of pace on the run and there was.’

Draper has enjoyed a good year, finishing on the podium at the World Triathlon Long Distance Championships in Spain in July, while also competing in the prestigious World Tour series events in both Vancouver and London where he finished best Brit.

The Island Games medallist will now focus on his first full Ironman event next month.

Draper will represent GB at the Challenge Almere event in Amsterdam on September 14.