Lionel Sanders will line up at IRONMAN 70.3 Cozumel on Sunday, having admitted that he suffered from a little FOMO while seeing his fellow triathletes competing at the World Championships in Nice.
The Canadian is still battling back to full fitness after injuries and illness wrecked last season and left him playing catch-up for much of 2026.
A battling win at 70.3 Dallas in March proved to be something of a false dawn for the 38-year-old, who later admitted that he was way off where he needed to be after a hugely disappointing 45th-placed finish at IRONMAN Texas.
Showing steady signs of improvement
Last month he did show improvement with a fourth at the 70.3 Northern California, and he is hoping for further evidence of steady gains when he lines up in Cozumel this weekend – and who knows, he might yet return for one of the IRONMAN majors next season.
Writing on his Instagram account this week, Sanders wrote: “Solid threshold effort yesterday & almost taper time for Cozumel 70.3. Excited to toe the line again.
“I put in some good work since Northern California, and I’m curious to see where that gets me.
Of course, having a little FOMO seeing all the content from Nice, but I am just not ready for a world champs quite yet.”
Still has hopes of racing the majors
Fans of Sanders, and indeed of triathlon, will cling to the addition of the word ‘yet’, which suggests that he does still harbour hopes of once again making it to either Kona or the 70.3 World Championships next year, with the half-distance title likely to suit him as it will be held in Chattanooga.
Interestingly, this will be the first time that Sanders has competed in Cozumel, a fast but deceptively demanding course which, while largely flat, exposes athletes to strong coastal crosswinds as well as oppressive heat and humidity.
The men’s field this weekend also includes Rodrigo González (MEX), Marc Dubrick (USA), Sebastian Fuchs (AUT) and Dominik Sowieja (GER), while the women’s field of only nine athletes is headed by Cecilia Perez (MEX), Fenella Langridge (GBR) and Julie Iemmolo (FRA).
Langridge, however, swerved last weekend’s 70.3 Worlds in Nice to focus fully on Kona next month, and, while her withdrawal has not been confirmed, it appears unlikely that she will line up in Mexico.
Race start times and prize money
The professional men’s race starts in Chankanaab Park at 06:30 local time, with the women getting underway just five minutes later. Start times around the world include 12:30 in the UK, 13:30 in Central Europe, 07:30 on the East Coast of the US, 06:30 in the Central US, and 04:30 on the Pacific Coast.
In terms of world championship qualifying slots, there are two available per gender for next year’s 70.3 title race in Chattanooga, while the prize purse is $25,000 split equally between the men’s and women’s races.
1st: $4,000
2nd: $2,750
3rd: $2,000
4th: $1,500
5th: $1,250
6th: $1,000
