IT'S a moment he's dreamed about since he took up the sport of triathlon in 2012.
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Now Nowra-born triathlete Jonathan Goerlach is on the verge of achieving his Paralympics goal - if he and partner Sam Douglas finish in the top three at Saturday's Devonport ITU World Paratriathlon Series event.
"It's very exciting to be in this position, after all the hard work we've done thus far," Goerlach said.
"There's obviously a fair bit of nerves there too but we know we've done the work to achieve our desired result.
"I can't wait to get out there and race on the day."
This work includes a strong end to the 2019 calendar year (which acts as the first half of the qualification season), which was followed by a long off-season for the 36-year-old.
"After securing quality points at Tokyo and Lausanne, I had about four weeks off training completely, to give the body a break - as the next nine months was going to be as gruelling as I've ever had," Goerlach said.
"Then I started to ease my way back into it [training] - I've now had a consistent block of off-season training, doing a lot of work with Brendan Sexton in Wollongong."
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The Bomaderry High School alumnus then teamed back up with Douglas to prepare for their first event of 2020, the Newcastle OTU Paratriathlon Oceania Championships.
"Newcastle was a great hit-out for Sam and I and we ticked all the boxes we wanted to from that event," he said.
"We claimed line honours (in a time of 1:07:13) and secured maximum points to add to our tally - it was great to get some kilometres in the legs ahead of Devonport."
This first placed finish elevated the duo from ninth to fifth in the rankings, with the top 10 at June 28's cut-off date qualifying for the Paralympic Games.
On the back of these results, a podium finish at Devonport - where the duo finished second at in 2019 due to a dropped bike chain - would all but secure Goerlach and Douglas a spot in the team for Tokyo - even though it won't be officially announced until July.
"This Devonport event is now on par with events such as Yokohama and Montreal around the world, which is great for us Australians," he said.
"I've raced this track more than six times and know it well - this should put me in good stead against the international athletes.
"We're confident we can finish on the podium, as all the confirmed starters I finished ahead of at last year's world championships."
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If all goes to plan of Goerlach, appreciates the enormity of the situation.
"I've been working for eight years to be in this position and now I'm only days away from potentially sealing my spot for Tokyo," he said.
"Obviously there's been some heartbreaking moments along the way, such as nearly walking away from the sport before the Rio Games, but it'll all be worth it if I finish on the podium on Saturday."
Even if Goerlach and Douglas fail to finish in the top three, they have a number of other races between now and June 28 to 'top-up their points'.
"There'll be plenty of other opportunities to qualify in the coming months but we want to make the most of this chance on home soil," he said.
"If we do cement out spot, it'll give us one less thing to worry about leading into Tokyo."