Ardara man Austen Allen is showing no signs of slowing down on Channel 4’s Countdown after storming to his third consecutive victory today by a huge 69-point margin.
The hospital worker chalked up another impressive score of 107 points on Tuesday, comfortably defeating opponent Brian, who finished on 38.
It means Austen has now broken the 100-point barrier in each of his three appearances on the long-running letters and numbers game show.
After a superb 108-point victory on Friday, Austen returned on Monday and produced another excellent performance, beating Chloe 108-57, before making it three wins from three today.
That gives the Donegal contestant an impressive 323 points across his opening three games.
Austen can continue returning as champion for up to eight heat victories, with a contestant who completes the full unbeaten run earning the coveted title of Countdown octochamp.
The Ardara man showed off the depth of his vocabulary again today, producing a series of strong seven and eight-letter words.
Among his successful offerings were SULKERS, MIGRATED, PTOMAINE, REUNITES and URINATED.
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He also found PENSIVE, GODETIA and HAIRNET during another commanding display in the letters rounds.
Austen picked up eight points with MIGRATED after Brian’s attempted seven-letter word GRAFTER was ruled out because there was only one R available.
The numbers proved another strong suit for the Donegal man.
Austen came closest to the first target of 917, reaching the number exactly while Brian could only manage 924.
When the target was 378, Austen reached 375 to take the points.
He then opted for a tricky combination of four large numbers and two small numbers and successfully hit a target of 619 exactly, with Brian reaching 616.
Both contestants later managed to hit another maths target of 666.
Brian did have the final say when it came to the famous Countdown conundrum.
Presented with the letters SPICEHUNT, he successfully unravelled them to find the nine-letter answer PUNCHIEST.
It was not enough to trouble Austen, however, who had already built an unassailable lead and finished the programme with another century score.
Donegal viewers will now be watching closely to see just how far his impressive run can go.