Straight off being crowned overall age-group Ironman world champion in Utah last month, Kiwi Matt Kerr is more than ready to back up that performance.
The Tairua 30-year-old will lace up for the full-distance Cairns event on Sunday, where he's hopes to prove why he's the fastest non-professional Ironman athlete on the planet.
After competing in the half-Ironman last year, he's well acquainted with the course, comprising a gruelling 3.8km swim, 180km bike ride and a 42.2km run.
"It's certainly going to be a big test to see how the body pulls up and I'm pretty excited for it," Kerr said. "I guess there's a bit of pressure going into it, but you can only do what you can do on the day and race your own race.
"For me, personally, I want to swim hard in this, ride hard and come home in the run consistently."
Kerr couldn't have asked for better preparation, training alongside fellow Kiwi and pro Braden Currie, who claimed bronze at the world champs last month, but that's not the only extra motivation he's harnessing for Sunday.
"Being a Kiwi racing an Aussie race always gives you some more fuel to the fire to push and be as far out the front of that field as you can," Kerr said.
"We've done a bit of training back home in New Zealand - down in Wanaka, his hometown - so we built a bit of a relationship. We get on really well and what works well is we're not racing against each other, but also we can use our training to both benefit ourselves."
Queenslanders refer to the Ironman as the 'Race in Paradise' and it's hard to argue it's not one of the more scenic courses in the world, but most of the field are only interested in one spot and that is ensuring they're at the front of the pack, when they cross the finish-line.
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