Friday, 16 August 2019:

With an automatic 2020 Olympics berth on the line for a podium finish, leading Australian Jake Birtwhistle was disappointed he could manage no better than 11th in Friday's triathlon test event in Tokyo.

The men's race on the Olympic course at Odaiba Marine Park was at least contested over the full distance, unlike Thursday's women's event when extreme heat forced organisers to cut the run leg in half.

In warm and gusty conditions, Birtwhistle was 38th after the opening swim leg, leaving him with plenty of work to do.

"So finishing 11th, it's pretty disappointing," said Birtwhistle, the No.1 seed.

"Everyone has a lot on the line here, so it was definitely one of the most aggressive swims (I've had).

"We got out of the water and onto the bike, and thankfully I had a couple of other strong riders that were willing to do a bit of work to get up to the front.

"I got there and stayed safe which was a big tick on this course, obviously quite challenging and demanding."

"Then onto the run and that's where I made the mistake of treating today's conditions like what we trained for, what we expected, thinking it was going to be super hot and humid and that's what not we had today.

"I started off a bit conservatively and in doing so just put myself out of the race."

Canada's Tyler Mislawchuk won the race ahead in a thrilling sprint finish ahead of Norway's Casper Stornes and Hayden Wilde from New Zealand.

"That's the biggest race outside of the Olympics for me so that's just unbelievable," said Mislawchuk.

"I had good legs on the day and I want to thank the boys out there for helping me out, we worked as a team and I couldn't have done it without them."

Ryan Fisher was the best of the other Australians in 18th place, ahead of Luke Willian (21st), Matt Hauser (30th) and Aaron Royle (38th).

The mixed team relay takes place on Sunday.

AAP