How a Sub-10 Canadian Sprinter Trains for LA 2028

I stay consistent with my preparation, which is what helps me perform consistently and be very even keel. Going into the next Olympics, the next World Championships, I've had those reps. I've been alongside guys like Andre De Grasse and Aaron Brown. I've got medals now in World Relays in both the mixed relay and the open relay, and in Commonwealth. I've won a national championship. So I'm ready for these next couple years leading into LA to really peak and turn over Canadian sprinting to the next generation.

He is the pride of Ajax, Ontario. He is a champion sprinter, one of Canada's top track and field athletes. He has a great charity coming up in October we're going to speak about in a minute, and he's a fantastic follow on Instagram at b1gpocket. He's Duan Asemota. Duan, it's an absolute thrill to talk to you, especially after an incredible performance in Glasgow at the Commonwealth Games. How are you, my friend?

I'm doing good. That was probably one of the best intros I've ever got coming on the show. I really appreciate that. Thanks for having me on.

It's a pleasure and you deserve it. Here you are training just days after coming back from Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, getting the work in. It's a constant grind to stay at that elite level as a sprinter.

Of course. Right after Commonwealth I did a few days of vacation in Portugal, so I didn't get right back, but after I jumped off the plane on Saturday, Monday I'm back at training. Yesterday I was just at the National Bank Open watching Coco Gauff, but today I'm back in training. It's all about the road to LA, keeping consistent, making sure you're staying steady. I didn't race super well at Commonwealth individually, and I always strive for ways to get better and push toward a Canadian record. Right back to work. Still got things to do.

Before we get to the men's 4x100m and everything that happened as you got that silver medal, a lot of people are wondering what kind of training you do. How much weightlifting, how much long sprinting, short sprinting, interval training. What goes into creating an athlete who can run a sub-10 100 metres?

Honestly, it's different for everyone. Some people have programs where they train five to six days a week. I usually do four days a week to keep up the quality of each workout, so I'm not coming into sessions and just gassing it. In one week I'll probably have two heavy acceleration days, working on starts and accelerating from a three-point stance. I'll have two longer sprint days between 60m, 80m, and 90m. And then we obviously have the aerobic capacity day once a week too, pushing 250s, 300m repeats, 150s, that kind of stuff. So on the track you get a mix of speed and power, resistance training paired with non-resistance training.

Then the weight room, which is one of the biggest things I've improved on in the past couple years, and that kind of propelled me to making my last Olympic team in the 100 metre. It was pretty much increasing the weight in the weight room on the Olympic lifts. Predominantly all the lifts I do are movement lifts, because with running it's all about how fast can you run and how strong can you be while you run fast. Static lifts don't really get you as far in sprinting. So it's stuff like hang power cleans, some snatches, jump squat variations, RDLs, functional movements, that kind of thing. Four days a week. I'm cleaning roughly around 142 kilos, which is 315 lbs. I'm half-squatting around 240 kilograms, upwards of 500-plus pounds on the bar.

How are you balancing that with therapy to keep the muscles pliable and not injured, plus diet, nutrition, and recovery?

I have a rigorous treatment schedule as well. Monday, I usually do chiropractic work. Tuesday is a physio day, any pinpoint stuff, acupuncture, dry needling, just to clean up some residual work. Wednesday I get a massage to iron out the muscles so that on Thursday I can go back and perform at a high level. Thursday I pretty much take to myself, keeping it a self-care day, rolling out, stretch routine, cold tub, warm tub, contrast, things like that. Friday I close out with either a big massage session or a big physio session with acupuncture. Keeping the body maintained is pretty similar to having an F1 car.

That's a good analogy. I was thinking about Brad Pitt in the F1 movie. Every little thing has to be in tune for them to win, and it's no different for an Olympic level sprinter.

Of course. The 100 metres is one of the most volatile things you can put your body through, period. People even say humans weren't supposed to go sub-10. That tells you how much people are pushing the limits. But you can have a toe go wrong, a shoulder off, a hip off, and it will bring your time down significantly. So making sure you're optimized is the goal. The people you should really idolize are the most consistent ones. Everyone can have a good year or two, but someone like Aaron Brown, straight from university, never had a single year off with injury. That's super inspiring, that consistency on and off the track.

When did your track and field journey start? You probably played a lot of sports as a kid. How did this become your passion?

Track actually found me. I didn't go looking for it. In elementary school you do track and field day, and I wasn't even winning the 100 metre in grade eight. I think I came fourth. Going into high school I was a basketball player. I figured there'd be a bunch of faster guys I couldn't beat. It wasn't until grade 10, I'm doing the beep test, and my gym teacher pulls me aside, "You need to score this in the beep test or you're going to get a C in the class." So I'm working hard in the beep test, and my gym teacher happened to also be the track and field coach. He sees me work and says, "You know what, we had a kid transfer out of school last year on our relay team. How would you like to come be a relay member?" He sent me down to the track I train at right now, York University, to do a meet. I came out, won the meet, and pretty much ever since I've been running.

Amazing. And then after high school, where did you go from there?

After high school I was lucky enough to be paired with Tony Sharpe at Speed Academy, which is where Andre De Grasse was as well. Andre went to Coffeyville Community College out of Canada, so he basically told me I was going to do the same thing, straight from Notre Dame Catholic Secondary School in Ajax all the way to Coffeyville and do two years, then transfer to a D1 school. That's pretty much exactly what happened. After I got my diploma I went to Coffeyville, Kansas, a town of 9,000 people. It's literally Last Chance U. If you've watched that show, that's exactly it. Limited resources, limited money, sack lunches to go to meets, just finding a way to make it out.

Devin Heroux at CBC did an amazing interview with you and the team after the long delay and the rules violation dispute. What is it about Andre that means so much to everyone involved with the track team in Canada?

I'm proud enough to be friends with Andre off the track. You get to know him and he's a silly guy, doesn't take things too seriously, but his leadership is by example. When he's prepared for a race he's a stone-cold killer. He's calm, might look like he has a smile on his face, but whenever he gets into these races he performs and executes. For me personally it gives me a lot of confidence being alongside him in a relay, knowing you've got a dog on the team who's going to carry us out of whatever position we're in and try to get us a medal. For all of us it teaches us to be even keel, have more confidence in ourselves, trust our preparation, and get to the track and execute. Andre has seven Olympic medals and he didn't get that by being too stressed in the call room or overworking himself in training. He simply believes in himself. He's not the one giving speeches, he's the one leading with his energy and his vibe.

When you won the Canadian men's title in 2025, the last 20, 25 metres was phenomenal. One thing about Andre I noticed almost the whole race is how steady his head is. His body is doing all this work, but he's so calm from the neck up.

Andre is an anomaly in different ways. Really good balance, really good coordination with his body. A lot of his sprinting is about symmetry, you've got to have one leg doing the same thing as the other. What makes him super special is he's able to keep his hips really level, so his sprinting is efficient. Some people rock from side to side when they run. With Andre you could probably lay a book across his shoulders and it wouldn't tilt at all.

Are you going to the indoor season again this year?

Indoors hasn't been my strongest thing. I'm not really the best starter, not usually my strong suit. I always push myself, but the indoor championships this year is in Toronto, so I have to come out and put on for my family and friends. My mom would not be impressed if I didn't compete. She's told me from the jump, whatever you're doing, give it 100% and compete.

You really use social media wisely, showing the day-to-day, hour-to-hour reality of being a kid from Ajax or Canada in Scotland at an international track meet. I find it very educational about where you're eating, where you're living, what the experience is like.

I always try to make sure that on social media, I don't want people to just follow me because they think I'm cool or fast. I want to show people what it's actually like to live the day in the life of an athlete. Chilling in the room playing video games, going to get food, having a day out in the city. It's more so letting people know we're humans too. So when they see us on the track performing at a high level, it almost looks more impressive.

How much do you appreciate meeting all these different athletes and people from all these different countries and cultures at international meets?

It's a blessing. Ever since I went to Ohio State I've met people from everywhere, but when you go to big meets like the Commonwealth Games, Olympics, or World Championships, you see like-minded people who are pretty much the same as you, just different cultures. You might speak a different language, but it's the spirit of sport, that language of sport, that carries. Hundreds of people operating at the 0.01% level, it's very infectious to be around.

Is your only real off time when you eat cheat meals around Christmas, or do you take any other holiday time to give your body and mind a break?

During the season I don't go crazy on anything, no pastries, no wild takeout. I try to keep it limited. In the off season I go absolutely crazy. But if I do have a big personal best or we get a medal like we did before, I might have a day or two where I enjoy myself a little bit. Why not?

One of the things you're involved in is really cool, The Pocket Run 5K in Ajax, Ontario on October 3. Net proceeds go to Right To Play to support sport programming for youth in Rwanda. How did you get involved?

Once I made the Paris Olympics I said, okay, now I have this platform, what can I do to reach people? Along my path I had a lot of help, met a lot of people. I got involved with Right To Play through Sam Effah, another Canadian Olympian. He introduced me to the program because he saw I was doing a lot of work with kids. I started off doing clinics with Athletics Ontario right after the Olympics. I went to the Right To Play Heroes Gala and saw the work they were doing, and I said, perfect. My parents are from Lagos, Nigeria. They're helping kids all around the world, and I know what it's like to come from nothing when I see through their eyes. I've been back to Nigeria, seen where my family grew up, played with the kids in the village.

When I joined they didn't promise me anything. They told me, you're not going to get these trips to Africa. But last year they hit me up, "Hey, we have an opportunity for you to go to Rwanda." I had a friend, Steve Nuski, a Canadian high jumper. We both made our first Team Canada together. He was from Rwanda and had passed away in a tragic swimming incident. He always told me Rwanda was a great place. So I said, this is a chance to go. When I went, my jaw was on the floor seeing the impact of Right To Play. When you go to these galas and donate, you never really get to see where the money goes. I saw a STEM program where the kids were making fully working robotics. One girl made a fully working hospital model. Another made a school alarm and an elevator. And that program was being underfunded because Right To Play didn't have enough money to spread throughout it. When I got home I was touched, moved, but also determined and motivated to see what I could do within myself, my brand, and my platform to give back. So The Pocket Run 5K came together with my love for sprinting. It's better if we have everyone do a 5K than everyone line up for a 100. I think it makes for a better event. I'm a competitor, you can't blame me.

More details at thepocketrun.ca. If you want to be a sponsor, there's plenty of time to hop on board. It must have been eye-opening and humbling to see the response from kids in Rwanda hearing you're this Olympic athlete from Ajax.

Very eye-opening. You hear about these countries, you see pictures, but being there, kids coming up to you, wanting to meet you, asking about your race, how you got started, just the fact that you being there creates so much positive energy for them. It really means a lot. As an athlete your reach only seems as big as your community. Going there and having kids say, I want to be like you one day, I want to go to the Olympics, giving them that person they can see so they feel like they can dream it too. Every athlete should take the opportunity to do as much outreach as they can. It's always that one person who said, I met this person and it made me do this. That experience showed me the power we have with sports, the power of being an Olympian. It's more than just times, sponsorships, and brand deals. It's all about how much you can connect with people and how much you can actually help them.

You've been to Paris, you've been to different Olympic Games, you're getting ready for LA. Is your mental preparation different now that you know what to expect?

For sure. The first couple years on the scene, first Olympics, first Commonwealth Games, first World Championship, there's a bunch of nerves. I'd try to lie to myself, it's just another race, but all these races are different. All of them are bigger, and they all bring something different out of you. I stay consistent with my preparation, which helps me perform consistently and be even keel. Going into the next Olympics I've had those reps, I've been alongside guys like Andre De Grasse and Aaron Brown. I've got medals in World Relays in both the mixed relay and the open relay in Commonwealth. I've won a national championship. So I'm ready for these next couple years leading into LA to peak and turn over Canadian sprinting to the next generation.

In basketball and football there's trash talking. In international sprinting, when you're in the starter's blocks, do guys ever talk back and forth?

No. In the blocks specifically, no one will talk to you. You're supposed to be a little quiet on the start. Where you see more of the bravado is the call room. The call room is almost like the bullpen. You take eight guys running a race, put them in a room where they're getting ready, putting on their bibs, their numbers, and it's like an elevator full of guys where everyone's trying to show who's not scared, who's going to run the fastest. It's like a pissing contest. That's where the trash talk comes in. Someone like Noah Lyles is more vocal, when he gets to the call room he'll try to be loud and throw you off with his antics, screaming, jumping, all that stuff. Sometimes during the meet you'll walk past someone and they might give you a look, they've been looking at you all week when they know they're about to race. A lot of it is non-verbal cues you pick up on. The direct trash talk can come online though.

Has it come the other way, where you got a compliment or encouragement from an athlete you didn't expect?

Yeah, but that always comes after you have to humble them. It doesn't come before. Sometimes you've got to make people feel you. That's why I love track. It's like the ultimate measure of brute strength. It's an arm wrestle. After that we run. Races can go different ways, there can be technical things that throw it off, but when you beat someone to the point where they know they can't run faster than you, you get a different level of respect. That's what I love getting from my competitors when I'm able to win my races.

You train in all kinds of weather. When it's really hot, most running tracks are rubberized, and it can almost burn your fingers. You said once you're pushing over 30, 32 degrees, the track is lava.

It'll burn you. You have to put water on it. My coach has had to put water on the start lines just to make sure our hands didn't burn from the rubber and the heat, because the rubber heats up when the sun hits the track.

Do you have a preferred time of day to train?

I love training in the mornings. Mornings when you wake up, that's when your energy level is optimal, you're more alert. I like getting training out of the way. If I've been waiting all day my energy level drops and I have to pick it back up. First thing in the morning is best. I train at 9am at the Toronto Track and Field Centre, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday.

He is a national champion. He's a Commonwealth Games medalist. He has The Pocket Run 5K coming up in Ajax on October 3. Sponsor at thepocketrun.ca to help Right To Play in Rwanda. He's a must-follow on Instagram at b1gpocket, and the website is duanasemota.ca. What else is coming up for you the rest of the year?

Coming up next is the World Ultimate Championships. It's the first ever, World Athletics is putting together a special championship this year where the prize money has been doubled. Our mixed relay team qualified at World Relays. We took silver behind Jamaica. We broke the world record in the heats, they broke it back in the finals. It's going to be a good rematch in Budapest on September 11 and 12. You can catch it on CBC Sports. That's what's coming up next for me.

What is the mixed relay experience like as opposed to the men's 4x100?

Mixed relay is completely different. Two girls, two guys. When we first won the event last year in China, it was girl to start, girl second, boy third, boy fourth. If you ask me, I think because we won they changed it to guy first, girl second, guy third, girl fourth. They switched it up on us this year, but we'll get ready for it. That's also going to be in the Olympics coming up. Everyone should look out for Canada in both the open and the mixed relay.

Is that the first time mixed relay is a medal sport, coming up in LA?

Yes, it'll be the first time it's introduced in the Olympics as a medal sport. We've been working hard. We were the defending champions in 2025. We got the silver medal in 2026. So we're top two in the world program, top two all-time. Going into LA, we're going to make sure we have a medal secured, and hopefully we have medals around our necks in LA.

I know it was a long wait in Glasgow until all the judges decided you were silver medalists, but you guys, as always, as Canadians, handled it with great class. You represented the country well. An absolute thrill to talk to you. Good luck with your training and with The Pocket Run 5K, and we'll speak to you again as you get closer to Los Angeles.

Thank you. It'd be great to have you out there for the 5K. You look like you could drop a good time. We've got to make that happen.

Also, I'll add on. At The Pocket Run, we're going to be having a 40-yard dash installment sponsored by OVR Time Timing. After the 5K we're going to take a couple of hours where our vendors will replenish our athletes with electrolytes and food, and then we're going for the 40. We'll see who has the fastest 40-yard dash in Ajax on the day. Come check that out too.

You look like you're probably a 4.6 guy, maybe a 4.7 in the 40.

Duan, let's be honest, I haven't run a sub 5.40 in a long time. Head to thepocketrun.ca. Thank you, Jim.

Thank you for coming on.