The 23-year-old equalled the third-placed finish of Brad Kahlefeldt in 2010 when he finished seventh in the final race of the series on the Gold Coast.

Birtwhistle went into the race sitting in second place on the rankings on 4101, separating his two regular training partners Mario Mola (Spain, 4925) and Vincent Luis (France, 3810).

Luis knew he needed to finish five places ahead of Birtwhistle to claim second place in the series and achieved it by taking the win while Mola secured his third consecutive world title.

“I’m so happy to share the podium with my training partners, it’s amazing,” Birtwhistle said.

“I’m certainly happy to be the next Aussie and hopefully we can keep progressing like this. Triathlon in Australia is in a pretty good position at the moment with the guys we had today and there’s plenty more that can mix it with the best.”

Birtwhistle was 32 seconds off the pace after the 1500-metre swim and by the mid-point of the 40km ride had halved the deficit to solo leader Marten Van Riel.

At the final transition, the Tasmanian was in second place heading onto the 10km run but dropped off the pace to finish 1.12 behind the winner.

“I’m really happy with how I raced today and could not have done anything more,” he said. A gold and silver medallist in the same city at April’s Commonwealth Games, he was the leading Australian with three more finishing in the 20s.