Ranked third in the world last year, Birtwhistle was acknowledged for an outstanding season of results at Triathlon Australia's celebration of champions awards banquet on the Gold Coast.

The 24-year-old former Riverside student won best male performer of the year and also landed the prestigious athletes' athlete award.

Birtwhistle celebrated the acknowledgement in typical fashion - with a 23-kilometre run with his training partners in Mallorca where he is preparing for the next round of the World Triathlon Series in Bermuda at the end of this month.

The awards reflect a stunning 2018 in which Birtwhistle won a silver medal and then anchored Australia to mixed relay team gold at the Commonwealth Games.

He also spearheaded the Australians to another silver medal in the mixed relay world championships in Hamburg and then gold in the mixed relay series in Edmonton.

Facing another globe-trotting season featuring an estimated 120,000km of travel, Birtwhistle's priority will be the Tokyo Olympic test event in August when automatic nomination places are on the line for Australians if they finish on the podium.

Birtwhistle is coached by Canadian Joel Filliol, but his former mentor Jamie Turner was named high performance coach of the year for his work with other elite Australians including female triathlete of the year Ashleigh Gentle.