The multisport festival will be husband and wife duo David Herbig and Heather Carins’ third world championships, while training partners Diane Webb, Peter Adams and Shandell Elmer will make their international debuts. 

The five Launceston Triathlon Club members, who train at LAfit, will fly out on Friday for a weeklong training camp in California before their first day of competition on August 20.

Along with George Town athlete Aaron Zanevra, the group help make up a sum of about 225 Australians taking part in the event. 

“It’s been really good because we’re all clubmates together and now we’re Australian teammates together,” Herbig said.

“To put on the green and gold for your country, nothing beats that.”

Athletes from more than 50 countries are expected to compete in this year’s 10-day event in Penticton. 

Herbig, who will race in several events, said he was expecting to face temperatures as high as the mid-30s on racedays. 

“Triathlon is an endurance sport and endurance sports tend to suit older athletes, as you get older you get stronger in endurance.

“Someone fairly young, they haven’t quite got that endurance whereas people in their 30s, 40s and 50s are quite good at endurance sport.”

The transition into international waters has been a quick one for Webb, who only took up the sport two years ago.

“I’m relatively new to triathlons so this is an enormous thing for me to be doing, especially in the latter years of life, but very exciting,” she said. 

“But triathlon is a sport where you can do that, especially in the latter part of your years you can jump into things.”

Webb said coaches Tim Reese and Abbey Savage had been crucial to the group’s training program in the lead-up to the event. 

“There’s a lot of coaching because you’re training for a number of different sports at once and I think it’s been really useful being in a group together. 

“We’ve come off last year’s season so to build on that but doing that in a Tassie winter has been incredibly challenging - especially the bike legs and the run legs.”