Brad De Losa has booked his ticket to Vienna to try his luck for the 2022 Stihl Timbersports World Trophy after taking home the Australian Trophy win in Adelaide on March 5.
The Blackheath native enjoyed some downtime and light training over Christmas but with easing COVID restrictions, he was more excited than ever to get back out on the stage.
In previous years De Losa competed in St Kilda, Melbourne for the trophy but for the first time in the event's history it was held at Glenelg beach in South Australia.
De Losa qualified in third position in the prelims, followed by two race wins and went onto beat Grafton's Chris Owen in the final and Victoria's Laurence O'Toole in the semi-final before going head to head with Victoria's Brayden Meyer.
"I had to cut four times and it was good to get a win over Laurence whose gotten me in the past," De Losa said.
While De Losa was happy with his performance over the day, it was a bittersweet way to win against Meyer when it all came down to rules.
"I made a couple of little mistakes in the standing block and Brayden actually beat me by half a hit, I think it was a bout point six of a second," he said.
But unfortunately Meyer threw his safety equipment across a little too far when coming from the stock saw across to the overhand.
"You've got to take your safety glasses and ear muffs off and he flung his across and they came across onto my side of the stage," De Losa said.
"When I was running across they sorta came in under my feet so the judges deemed that to be unsafe, and he was disqualified, which gave me the win," he said.
"It's probably a disappointing way to win, disappointing for him and for me to win but at the end of the day rules are the rules," he said.
De Losa was still honoured to receive the win with a time of 1:27:83 and looked forward to heading to Austria on May 28.
"In between now and then I've got the Sydney Royal Easter Show and a few smaller competitions, and then I'll head over there a couple of weeks beforehand to acclimatise and settle in," he said.
"I've been lucky enough to win that World Trophy on three previous occasions. So to get another one would be certainly very nice," he said.
Chopping his way through his goals, De Losa has been training four to five days per week.
"I've been doing swimming, lightweight training and then I just chops some blocks at home and also have a complete run through of the events, simulating what we'll be doing on the day," he said.
Fortunately he's also got his own training facility at the in-laws house.
"I've got lucky here with the in-laws to have a great indoor facility with the amount of rain we've had lately. It's been good to be able to train in here uninterrupted," he said.
He said he enjoyed his time in Adelaide and wanted to thank the Lithgow community for their messages of support and his family.
"We had a really good venue, pretty much where the stage was there was a boardwalk that led straight onto sand, it was a really beautiful setting," he said.
"We had a great day weather-wise and had a big, enthusiastic crowd. Thanks to my family and friends and to Lithgow for always getting behind me."