As part of plans aimed at a fully golden future for Qatari athletics, and continuing the Qatar Athletics Federation’s long-term planning, and as part of its strategy for preparing our national teams for the challenge of the Rio 2016 Olympics and the challenges ahead, our federation has succeeded in signing one of the world’s most renowned sprint coaches, American Dennis Mitchell, coach of American sprinter Gatlin, currently the best in the world and holder of the best sprint times for 2013-2014. Mitchell has his own coaching school and a special tactical and scientific approach to preparing and honing the talents and abilities of the world’s sprinters. Bringing the American Dennis onto the national teams’ technical staff is certainly a masterstroke for the Qatar Athletics Federation, led by Major General Dahlan Al Hamad, president of the Qatar and Asian federations and vice-president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, in providing the best technical staff for Qatar’s talented runners, foremost among them Femi Ogunode, currently the fastest sprinter in Asia, the Arab world and the Gulf, and winner of the 100m and 200m gold medals at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon
Major General Dahlan Al Hamad and the vision of future success
For his part, Major General Dahlan Al Hamad expressed his great happiness and delight at coach Dennis joining the sprint teams’ technical staff, overseeing the training of world-class runner Femi Ogunode and passing on his wealth of experience to the rest of our talented champions. The signing of the renowned coach Mitchell certainly comes within the framework of our strategy to prepare and develop our sprint discipline to the best technical and tactical level, especially since we have a promising generation of talented runners. God willing, he said, our goal will be to confirm our worth and to develop outstanding runners.
Khalifa Khamis and the long negotiations
For his part, Khalifa Khamis, general supervisor of the national teams, predicted a major qualitative leap in performance for Qatar’s sprinters, foremost among them Asia’s fastest runner Femi Ogunode, in addition to benefiting from Mitchell’s experience in developing a promising generation of talented runners and strengthening Qatar’s leadership on the Asian and international stage in the future, God willing, wishing Qatar’s athletes every success. The national teams’ general supervisor revealed that negotiations with Dennis had been difficult and had continued for many long months before reaching the final agreement. Khalifa Khamis called on the national team runners to give their utmost effort and persevere in training to benefit from the experience of the world-class coach, extending his deep thanks and gratitude to our wise leadership, stressing that it spared no effort in supporting Qatari sport, and wishing coach Dennis success in his new mission with Qatar’s athletics teams. Coach Dennis Mitchell has an extensive sporting record with the American sprint teams, both as an athlete and as a coach, having won numerous medals at international and Olympic level, and having long dominated American sprinting
