Lionel Sanders claims his best is yet to come as an elite triathlete as he looks to emulate the great Jan Frodeno.

The Canadian, now 35 years old, has had a rollercoaster 12 months after finishing second at the IRONMAN World Championship in May 22 before bombing in Kona and splitting with coach Mikal Iden.

Now, self-coached and targeting the middle distance, Sanders believes he has what it takes to succeed and is not discouraged by his age or the emerging crop of younger athletes vying for a place on the top spot.

Sanders says he can copy Frodeno

Speaking in an interview with Super League Triathlon, Sanders talked about his time left in the sport, and re-iterated his belief that his best performances are still to come.

“My peak is yet to come, most definitely, I believe that wholeheartedly. In my opinion, Jan [Frodeno] is the best to do it, the best all round, the most consistent on the day when it was the time to do the best, he was able to do it at the right time.

“I believe that he was 38 when he won the 70.3 world championships and ran what many people would say is the best run off the bike, he went toe to toe with [Alistair] Brownlee and [Javier] Gomez in South Africa.

“He was 38 then, and the next year he came back and broke the course record at Kona completely unchallenged at 39.”

The start of the best Lionel Sanders?

Discussing his own chances of similar success, Sanders said that he intends to continue chasing his best performances and wholeheartedly believes he is capable of surpassing his previous levels.

“I’m 35, I turned 35 a couple of days ago and it’s not to say ‘oh you’ve got a lot of time buddy’, but I think the best guy to ever do it did his best performances at 38-39 and so I think I can do the same and that’s what I intend to do and this is the beginning of that.”