THERE wasn't a comedian on the program for the Tasmanian Sports Awards on Friday.
There didn't need to be. Tristan Thomas was receiving the male athlete of the year award.
Tasmania's most famous sporting redhead was as colourful in his thanks as his thatch.
Asked by interviewer Tim Lane how it felt to trump such rivals as British Open golf star Mathew Goggin and Ashes dynamos Ben Hilfenhaus and Ricky Ponting, Thomas said: "Ricky who?" adding: "I think I've heard of him in passing."
The ever-entertaining Sandy Bay Harrier said he was proud to get up on stage, if only to show the 400-odd guests at Hobart's Wrest Point that he doesn't always look like the agonised, breathless grimacer featured in the photographic montage used to introduce him.
After the humour came the humility as Lane asked how it felt to beat America's world champion Bershawn Jackson at Sydney Olympic Park last year.
Thomas's reply suggested maturity beyond his 23 years and applied just as much to any other sport, or indeed career.
"When I thought about him I decided he's just one man, he's got two arms, two legs and one head, there is no reason why if I do as much work as him I cannot beat him," he said.
"I may not be the biggest on the track, or look like Brad Pitt, but if I want it more and do it better on the day, who's to say I cannot win?"
It wasn't long before the topic inevitably turned to hair colour.
"Ah, this always comes up," said Australia's all-time second fastest 400-metre hurdler after being asked if he was the world's quickest "ranga".
Admitting he was open to a sponsorship deal with Redhead matches, Thomas added: "But I would like to think that I'm a human as well and can get recognised for being that too."
Having won Tasmania's first ever athletics world championship medal with a bronze in the 4x400m relay in Berlin last year, Thomas said it was his dream to start winning individual medals.
When the next major team is being selected he said he would be the one shouting: "What about me? Pick the redhead!", concluding his address with a challenge to his Tasmanian sporting adversary.
"I'm going to work hard so Ricky Ponting will have to work hard too."
The 46th annual awards proved a typically entertaining affair, from Michelle O'Byrne saying how much she enjoyed being Sports Minister - and hoped to continue doing so next week - to Lane's ongoing quest for Tasmania's global domination.
Congratulating Devonport canoeist Andrea McQuitty for winning the coach of the year, Lane noted that as his home state provides half of the Australian wildwater team, which in turn is the fifth best in the world, wasn't it about time that Tasmania competed as a nation in its own right?
The rest of the evening was dominated by the continued campaign to ban the use of the cliche about Tasmania "punching above its weight".
It concluded with West Pine cyclist Amy Cure taking the top award and thanking her coach Ron Bryan, before apologising for not referring to him by his more familiar tag "Tubby".
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