Sarah Hawe, Eddie Ockenden, Amy Cure, Georgia Baker, Ariarne Titmus and Jake Birtwhistle shortlisted for Tasmanian Athlete of the Year award

Such is the benchmark level of achievement, that "world champion" appears to be the default description for almost every finalist.

For a state of just half a million people to produce so many world beaters does make you question the commitment of the planet's other 7.5 billion inhabitants.

For all the publicity that football and cricket enjoy, the vertebrae that form the backbone of Tasmanian sport are rowing, hockey and cycling.

They again dominate this year's finalists with Sarah Hawe, Eddie Ockenden, Amy Cure and Georgia Baker well aware of their respective sports' proven pedigrees.

Each has followed well-trodden paths to achieve global greatness with the likes of Simon Burgess and Kerry Hore, Michael Grenda and Matthew Goss, plus Daniel Sproule and Matthew Wells having long demonstrated that Tasmanian heritage is no impediment to elite sporting achievement.

All three sports are regular suspects at the Tasmanian awards with four of this year's six finalists continuing a proud and impressive tradition.

Baker and Cure formed 50 per cent of the Australian team pursuit line-up that won a world title in Poland, 100 per cent of the madison combo that added a silver medal and the Rio teammates are ideally placed to add Tokyo to their Olympic resumés.

Having won gold in 2017 and silver in 2018, Hawe was a member of the women's four that regained its world title in 2019. Remaining undefeated throughout the championship regatta in Austria and adding a world cup title helped bank a favourable middle lane in the race towards further success in Japan next year.

Ockenden was co-captain of the Kookaburras side that added the FIH Pro League to his previous tournament victories in two World Leagues, two World Cups, three Commonwealth Games, four Oceania Cups and seven Champions Trophies. He is also Australia's second most capped international player and will almost certainly overtake Jamie Dwyer ahead of what would be his fourth Olympic campaign.

In contrast to those three sports, swimming's involvement in Tasmanian Athlete of the Year contests is about as commonplace as Carlton in finals football.

But the aquatic talents of Ariarne Titmus and Jake Birtwhistle (combined with cycling and running) have changed that.

Titmus has gone so far beyond previous Tasmanian swimming achievements that she is virtually in a pool of her own.

In the past, it was a major achievement for the state to get a swimmer in a national final. Titmus has not only been winning national races for a couple of years, but has since added world titles and world records.

Of equal importance to the teenage freestyler's Tokyo hopes, she has also finally defeated her nemesis - five-time Olympic champion Katie Ledecky.

Of the seven races in this year's World Triathlon Series, Birtwhistle was the only multiple winner, was also the highest-placed Australian at the Olympic test event and capped his year off with a second win at the Noosa Triathlon.

Birtwhistle (2018), Hawe (2017), Cure (2015) and Ockenden (2014) have won the award previously, joining an honour roll also including Rebecca Van Asch (2017 joint), Matthew Bugg (2016), Richie Porte (2013), Daniel Geale (2012) and Goss (2011).

The 2019 Tasmanian Athlete of the Year will be announced in Hobart on Wednesday. Whoever wins, the six of the best who took on, and beat, the world's best at locations in South Korea, Poland, Austria, England, Germany and the Netherlands this year, can reasonably expect to be reunited in Tokyo next July.

A week later, the Tasmanian Institute of Sport will announce its new intake of scholarship recipients.

They will begin their journeys with no shortage of examples how far sport can take them.

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