Tasmania the centre of attention for Australian triathlons of all disciplines

Tasmania will start 2019 boasting the two best triathletes in the country in another show of the state punching above its weight on the world stage.

Triathlete Jake Birtwhistle, left, and ironman Cameron Wurf. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

TASMANIA will start 2019 boasting the two best triathletes in the country — albeit in vastly different disciplines — in another show of the state punching above its weight on the world stage.

Jake Birtwhistle and Cameron Wurf will both start the year brimming with confid­ence following outstanding 2018 seasons, but desperate to continue improving.

Birtwhistle, who was crowned the TIS athlete of the year in November, became just the second Australian to finish on the podium of the ITU World Triathlon Series world championships after taking third place in the seven-event series.

That came after he won Commonwealth Games gold in the mixed relay and silver in the individual race.

BIRTWHISTLE RACES TO VICTORY AS TASMANIA’S BEST

At arguably the most gruelling event on the planet — the Hawaiian Ironman World Championship, which is double the distance of the sport Birtwhistle competes in — Wurf again broke the bike-leg record en route to becoming the first Australian in four years to crack the top 10.

WURF LOWERS OWN BIKE TIME AT GRUELLING RACE

“I don’t think I am at my best, that’s for sure. That’s exciting for me and also a big positive I guess that I am 23, the two guys in the world that beat me this year, have got five years on me still,” Birtwhistle said when he joined Wurf in attending the schools triathlon challenge last month.

“It is a sport where you usually do your best quite late 20s, early 30s, so there is plenty of time. To be where I am at the moment at just 23 and feeling still like there is a lot more to give, it is exciting.

“Tassie has always done really well when you look at the numbers of how many people are doing the sport and then how many go to being world class, it is quite remarkable I guess and exciting.

“I remember being a junior and you just needed one person to look up to, one person that was doing what you wanted. I had guys like Cam and Richie­ [Porte] and some of the other cyclists, they were some of the best in the world at their sport and were from Tassie, it made me recognise that it was possible for me to do it as well.”

While Birtwhistle’s ultimate goal is not only becoming an ITU WTS genuine title contender, the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020 are also at the forefront of his mind.

For Wurf, who recently became engaged to partner Fallon Farley after returning to his US base in California, climbing on to the podium in Hawaii is the top goal for 2019.

Helping his cause is the ability to specifically target the weakness of his three disciplines, the 42km marathon, having already qualified for Kona thanks to a second-place finish at Ironman 70.3 Western Australia in Busselton in early December.

“I think I said last year when I knew I had qualified earlier in the year that it gave me the opportunity to focus on something like I never had before,” Wurf said. “Now we have taken that to a whole new level, we literally have a year to prepare and it is pretty evident the run is where I am losing the race and so it gives us a chance to work on that.”