A University oarsman from Lancashire came out top in a unique cross channel boat race.

Former Blackburn schoolboy Aseer Ahkter, 20, whose family run the Post Office in School Lane, Brinscall, was a winner in the first Cambridge Channel Challenge.

The race mixed the time-honoured rowing rivalry between Oxford and Cambridge, a major physical challenge and the hazards of the open sea.

The challenge saw seven 'coastal 4' rowing boats take to the waters of the English Channel to race the 21-mile stretch from Great Britain to France.

These boats are built heavier, wider and longer than normal river boats and have been reinforced to deal with the rougher waters.

Aseer's team, the Lady Margaret Boat Club, which prepared for the challenge by doing 30km outings along England's Dover coast, consisted of four oarsmen and a cox.

The former Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School pupil, who only took up rowing when he began at Cambridge University, said: "We felt a great sense of achievement when we arrived on the French coast first.

Conditions were good but the wind changed half way through and it became tougher, with some of our strokes just hitting thin air.

"We had to steer around a couple of ferries which I must admit was a little scary."

"Some water entered the boat too and by the end we had about eight inches at the bottom."

Organised by St John's College of Cambridge, the event attracted teams from different colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, plus an entry from Deloitte, the event sponsor.

This is the first time teams have raced The Channel simultaneously with the motive being to raise money for Cancer Research UK.

Aseer, a chemical engineering student at St Johns College, left Dover at 8.24am.

His team reached Sangatte, France, in a time of three hours 37 minutes and 17seconds only three minutes ahead of the second-placed boat.

The route is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world and so each crew had a pilot boat keeping an eye out for ships and guiding the rowers