We Noticed: Lionel Sanders is IRONMAN Cozumel Bound, Wilde Highlights T100 Dubai, Goa 70.3 DNF Update and More

In a 15-minute rambling video posted earlier this week, Lionel Sanders announced that he wouldn’t be competing at Challenge Xiamen this weekend and will instead be “all in” for IRONMAN Cozumel. After a self-described hiatus from his YouTube channel, the Canadian said he will following a new format for his future videos, presumably similar to the format used for this one, which was filmed by his wife Erin.

“I’m just going to make videos that … if I got something that … I find interesting, I’m going to make a video about it,” Sanders said. “It’s not going to be pro … (it is) going to be old school. I’m just going to upload it and whatever.”

After explaining sickness prevented him from traveling to China, Sanders said that what piqued his interest was trying to have a good IRONMAN race in cold weather, but that he’d also like to have a good IRONMAN race in hot weather. Sanders announced that he’ll be heading to IRONMAN Cozumel in a few weeks. (“I should do one in the cold first …” he said when Erin called him out on that point.)

In the video Sanders said he is confident he can have “the best season of my entire career” next year, and that his age (he turned 38 earlier this year) won’t be an issue on that front.

It’s been a tough year for Sanders – after spending much of 2025 dealing with illness and injury linked to RED-S, he started things off with an impressive win at IRONMAN 70.3 Dallas-Little Elm in March. He struggled at IRONMAN Texas, finishing 45th, and was off for much of the summer with an injury after that. He returned to racing with a fourth-place finish at IRONMAN 70.3 Northern California, and took third at IRONMAN 70.3 Cozumel, where he raced despite being sick.

Wilde Headlines T100 Dubai Field

Earlier this week we shared the news that the T100 Saudi Arabia race was postponed until next year, and that the Professional Triathletes Organisation would be adding a men’s race to the upcoming event in Dubai. Reigning T100 and 70.3 world champion Hayden Wilde highlights the men’s field, which was announced earlier today.

Wilde is also registered to compete in the WTCS Dubai event which is scheduled to go on the Friday afternoon (men’s start is 4 pm local time). The men’s race for T100 Dubai is scheduled to go at 10:03 am local time on the Saturday, which, in theory, would preclude the Kiwi from competing in both races. World Triathlon rules prohibit athletes from competing in two events within 24 hours of each other when one of those races is standard distance or longer, so Wilde will have to get some sort of dispensation from World Triathlon to compete in the double.

“I’m looking forward to getting back to racing,” Wilde is quoted in today’s press release. “I enjoy coming to Dubai to train and race, so next week will be no different. If there’s a chance to have a crack at both the WTCS Abu Dhabi and Dubai T100, then I’m all in. Doing the shorter race first should actually help. On the French Riviera last year it was the other way around. But we’ll see how we go.”

Here’s the list with the rest of the athletes competing in the T100 event in Dubai:

IRONMAN 70.3 GOA DNF Update

While it would appear that it was a very tough day for athletes competing at IRONMAN 70.3 Goa in India last weekend, the rate of athletes who either DNF’d or failed to make the cutoff times wasn’t nearly as bad as some have claimed. (One social media meme had the number at 45%.)

As you’ll see from the chart below, just under 23% of the field either pulled out or missed the cut off times, with that number being a bit over 24% for the individual competitors, and a bit lower for the relay teams.

The race is already challenging enough thanks to the intense tropical heat, high humidity and rolling bike and run courses, but things were made even more difficult for some competitors last weekend due to jellyfish blooms that arose due to elevated ocean temperatures – a number of athletes were stung.

So, while there were a number of athletes who didn’t get across the line, the race in Goa still trails a number of other IRONMAN events that have seen higher DNF rates. IRONMAN Waco in 2022, for example, had a 31.2% DNF rate due to the severe heat. In 2024 the tough swim conditions at IRONMAN Morro Bay saw roughly 25% of the field fail to finish.

Typical IRONMAN and 70.3 DNF rates are between 3 and 8%, so there’s no doubt it was a tough day for athletes competing in Goa. It just wasn’t quite as bad as some are making out.

Following Florida

We reported on the very competitive men’s race we’re likely to see in Florida tomorrow (Alanis Siffert is the prohibitive women’s favourite), but triathlon fans will have to follow the race via the IRONMAN tracker – there’s no live coverage of the event.

Following Xiamen

Challenge Family will offer live coverage of the race in Xiamen. which kicks off at 7 am local time, 6 pm EST. In addition to Norwegian starts Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden, the field includes defending champions Kieran Storch (GER) and Sara Pérez Sala (ESP), along with Mike Phillips (NZL), Ognjen Stojanovic (SER), Justine Guerard (FRA) and Jasmine Brown (AUS).

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