The first presser of the Doha DL week was Femi Ogunode, Qatar’s finest sprinter and a four time Asian Games champion. Matched with Femi was LaShawn Merritt, one of the finest 400 meter runners of his generation, Olympic and World Champion as well.
While LaShawn Merritt has been to the top of the food chain in the 400 meters, and he has tremendous competition, he presented himself as a man renewed, with a new coach, with strong speed over 200 meters and his finest start ever over 400 meters (44.2).
Femi Ogunode is the best sprinter of his region. His goal? ” To be in the top three in both the 100 meters and 200 meters in RIO.” Tall goals. In the 200 meters in Doha, in front of his home crowd, Femi Ogunode wants to win and win big.
Here is the interview we did with Femi and LaShawn on May 3, 2016, in Doha, Qatar.
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
View all posts
by Larry Eder
