Tasmanian sporting highlights of 2021

However, it was in Japan where they shone brightest as Tasmania enjoyed its most successful Olympics ever.

Here are my selections for the Top 10 moments in Tasmanian sport in 2021.

A breakthrough moment in Tasmanian sport would ultimately prove just the beginning.

In winning her first Olympic event, Ariarne Titmus also claimed Tasmania's first gold medal in 13 years and became the state's first individual Olympic champion.

Two days later she would become the state's first multiple Olympic champion, with victory in the 200m freestyle (joining Shane Gould and Ian Thorpe as the only Australians to claim the double), before a silver in the 800m and bronze in the 4x200m relay confirmed her as the state's most successful Olympian.

But it was the 400m which broke the shackles as the former Riverside and Launceston Aquatic member, who relocated to Queensland in 2015, repeated her world championship victory over American rival and defending champion Katie Ledecky two years earlier.

This was the one he wanted.

Of all the major week-long WorldTour stage races, Richie Porte had pretty much won them all.

His 10 career general classification wins included Paris-Nice, Tour de Suisse, Volta a Catalunya, Tour de Romandie and his home-nation Tour Down Under, but the traditional Tour de France lead-in had long eluded him - an itch made even scratchier by two runner-up finishes in 2013 and '17 - the latter when leading on the final day.

A year after achieving his dream of a Tour de France podium, this was possibly the 36-year-old's last chance and after back-to-back second-place finishes behind INEOS Grenadiers teammates at Catalunya and Romandie, he grabbed the chance to step a place higher on the podium.

Seventh after the stage-four individual time trial, Porte made his move in the 171km penultimate Alpine stage to La Plagne, finishing second to establish an overall 17-second lead which he defended on the final day.

For a Tasmanian to play in an Australian soccer showpiece is rare enough, but 23 minutes into the match, Nathaniel Atkinson scored and later collected the Joe Marston Medal as its best player.

Shortly after turning 22 and having made a stunning recovery from a hamstring injury, Atkinson started for Melbourne City who fell behind to a Kosta Barbarouses goal for Sydney.

However, just two minutes later, the Riverside Olympic product rifled home a right-footed equaliser and City went on to win 3-1 to avenge their extra-time defeat to the same opponent a year earlier.

Within a month, Atkinson was in the Olyroos side at the Tokyo Olympics. Pivotal in the opening-match win over much-fancied Argentina, he was named player of the match in a 1-0 loss to Spain but collected a last-minute yellow card which saw him suspended from the final group match loss to Egypt.

A nerve-wracking shootout was all that stood between multiple World Cup, World League, Champions Trophy and Commonwealth Games winner Eddie Ockenden and the only title missing from his illustrious CV.

One of only nine Australians to go to four Olympic Games, the 34-year-old took his international appearance record up to 380 while fellow Hobartian Josh Beltz, 26, passed 50 as the Kookaburras stormed through to their first Olympic final since 2004.

Initially one of 11 players to be left off the 16-player team for Tokyo, Beltz was then called up as a reserve before a COVID-enforced International Olympic Committee rule change saw him adopted into the main squad.

He enjoyed a goal-scoring Olympic debut in a thumping 7-1 win over India as the Aussies also beat reigning champions Argentina, New Zealand, The Netherlands in a thrilling quarter-final shoot-out victory and Germany.

On a night of high drama between the world's top two ranked teams at the Oi Hockey Stadium, Australia drew the final 1-1 with Belgium before losing 2-3 in the shootout.

Ockenden, whose previous three campaigns had yielded two bronze medals, captained the Kookaburras in the final.

Chasing an elusive Twenty20 world title in Dubai, Australia fell to 5-96 in the 13th over of the semi-final in pursuit of Pakistan's 177.

After waiting for Shadab Khan to complete the best-ever T20 World Cup semi-final figures, Matthew Wade was on eight off nine balls with Australia still needing 50 off 24 to make the final.

Taking advantage of being dropped at deep mid-wicket, the 33-year-old Tasmanian wicket-keeper hit three consecutive sixes to finish on 41 off 17 balls and win the game with an over to spare.

It set up a trans-Tasman final against New Zealand which the Aussies won by eight wickets to confirm their maiden tournament triumph.

Wade subsequently revealed he played the semi with a grade-two tear in his side sustained during training the day before.

After 130 games with North Melbourne, Ben Brown needed just 13 with Melbourne to claim footy's ultimate prize.

Four-time leading goalkicker with the Kangaroos, the Tasmanian was a regular Coleman Medal contender but after an injury-ravaged 2020 season was put up for trade and landed a final-day move to the Demons.

After more injury setbacks he broke into a side which claimed the minor premiership and progressed to a grand final played in Perth.

Brown kicked three goals in the 21.14 (140) to 10.6 (66) decider which had seen the Bulldogs bounce back from a dismal first-quarter to lead at the main break before the Demons kicked 15 of the last 16 goals to run away with their first flag since 1964.

A disappointing time penalty in his heat left Daniel Watkins with it all to do at his maiden Olympic Games.

But Grove's 25-year-old Derwent Canoe Club member delivered when the pressure was on with the eighth fastest second run to qualify 10th of the 15 who progressed.

He then came alive in the semi-final, recording a time of 101.28, bettered only by Frenchman Martin Thomas.

A beaming Watkins punched the air after completing what Channel Seven commentator Dave Culbert called "the run of his life" on the biggest stage.

Incurring a two-second penalty in the final, Watkins ultimately finished ninth, nearly 10 seconds behind the winner.

Also selected as a reserve for K1, he has a decade of international experience in canoe and kayak racing and is well placed for another Olympic tilt on a Paris course he already knows well.

A sizzling performance in the Tokyo rain saw Deon Kenzie add a bronze medal to the silver he won in Rio de Janeiro five years earlier.

While Canada's reigning world champion and record holder Nate Riech won the race in a Paralympic record, Kenzie was one of only three in the field of nine to have run under four minutes.

He broke away from the chasing pack and established an advantage of nearly 10 metres before being caught in the final straight by Algerian Abdelkrim Krai who claimed the silver medal as Kenzie hung on to record a time of 4:03.76.

The Forth 25-year-old has a full set of medals from IPC world championships, including gold in 2017.

After 14 medal-less campaigns - including three losing semi-finals and 10 quarter-final appearances - an Australian men's basketball team finally climbed an Olympic dais in Tokyo.

Launceston-born Chris Goulding joined the likes of Patty Mills, Joe Ingles, Matt Dellavedova and Dante Exum in defeating Slovenia in the bronze medal match, having lost their semi-final to eventual champions USA.

The achievement came just six weeks after Goulding had led Melbourne United to the NBL championship, defeating Perth Wildcats 3-0 to claim his third national title.

The son of North Launceston premiership player and North Melbourne recruit Steve Goulding began his basketball journey at Launceston PCYC before his family moved to Queensland in the mid-90s.

In shaving exactly one second off his own 1500m national record at the Monaco Diamond League, Stewart McSweyn not only established himself as Australia and Oceania record-holder but surpassed Craig Mottram as his country's benchmark middle-distance performer.

Registering his sixth national record in a time of 3:29.51 was also the moment which prompted the 26-year-old King Islander's decision to focus on that distance at his maiden Olympic Games less than a month later.

McSweyn had also achieved the qualification standard for 5000m and 10,000m - the distances he contested at the 2018 Commonwealth Games - but opted to focus purely on the 1500m.

Having progressed through his heat and semi-final, McSweyn finished seventh in the fastest 1500m final in Olympic history.

His time of 3:31.91 would have won every other Olympic final.

A member of Nic Bideau's Melbourne Track Club, he is a veteran of global competition having contested multiple track and field and cross-country world championships.