Goerlach and his guide Sam Douglas finished second in the 2019 Devonport ITU Paratriathlon World Cup event, in a time 1:03:18.

While happy to claim the silver medal, Goerlach knows the time and result could have been even better if not for a mechanical issue on the cycle leg.

"Obviously Sam and I are happy to finish with the silver medal, just 46 seconds off the beating French pair," Goerlach said.

"Unfortunately, we just ran out of road to chase them, as we were catching them on every lap.

"At the end of the day, we both know the bike issue is what cost us the win - with us losing more than 90 seconds of time due to the chain malfunction."

Despite that, the pair are taking the positives from what was another strong performance.

"Overall, we were happy with the race - the swim continues to improve and the signs were positive on Saturday, despite the tricky conditions," he said.

"Then on the bike, we were motoring and gaining on the teams in front of us, as we could see them on our return laps, until our issue happened.

"Finally, we entered the run in third and quickly moved into second, but the gap was too large and we were unable to catch the eventual winners."

This 'positive performance' by the pair comes on the back of them winning the 2019 Newcastle OTU Paratriathlon Oceania Championships the weekend before.

"The win in Newcastle was great, with us collecting a ton of points from that event," he said.

"Both Newcastle and then Devonport acted as another chance for Sam and I to work on our cohesion together, ahead of a number of big overseas races later in the year."

The pair will race in a couple of local races before heading to Yokohama to race on May 18.

"The win in Newcastle sets up the year nicely for us and means we don't have to travel to Milan in April," he said.

"It automatically qualifies us for the big world series events during the Paralympic qualification period, meaning we can stay home and train hard for the next two months, instead of being on the road.

"And if we can get on the podium at Montreal, as well as Lausanne later in the year, it will go a long way to ensuring we stay in that top six ranking, which automatically qualify for the Paralympics next year."

The Tokyo 2020 qualification year starts at the ITU World Paratriathlon Series event in Montreal on June 28 and runs up until the following June - determining the athletes that will represent their country at the Paralympics.

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