Lionel Sanders takes on the sprinters at Arena Games Montreal!

Lionel Sanders might be renowned as one of the sport’s most popular long course athletes, but later this month Triathlon Magazine’s long-course triathlete of the year will take on some of the sport’s fastest short-course athletes at Arena Games Montreal.

“I’m excited,” Sanders said. “I’m nervous. I’m looking forward to the challenge. I’m excited to have the opportunity to do something new, something fun, something really good for the sport and professional triathlon and really good for you because high end I think is extremely important.”

Sanders is also looking forward to the “arena” component of the racing in Montreal, which will be taking place at the Olympic Park Sports Centre on February 25. The event is the first foray for the Super League Arena Games powered by Zwift in North America, and is the first of three races in the 2023 Arena Games Triathlon World Championship Series. The other two races in the series take place in Switzerland on March 12 and London, England on April 8.

The race will include three heats of 200 m swim followed by a 4 km bike and 1 km run using the Zwift platform on a trainer and treadmill.

“My favourite sport to spectate is MMA,” Sanders continued. “I don’t want to get in the ring and scrap, but I would love to experience walking out as if you are going to scrap, and this will probably be the closest I will ever get to that, being the centre of attention in a true spectator sport, so that will be fun to experience.”

Sanders will be joined in Montreal by a couple of other long-course specialists – fellow Canadian Jackson Laundry and South Africa’s Jeanni Metzler.