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LaShawn Merritt keeps his focus on track

While his sport generates headline after headline — a doping scandal here, a fight for athletes’ rights there — LaShawn Merritt is keeping his head down in order to get back on track.

“A couple weeks out from the world championships or Olympic Games,” Merritt said, “I’m in a total lockdown and focused on my task.”

That lockdown means maybe skimming a headline or two but not reading a story on the World Anti-Doping Agency leak that led to the discovery of hundreds of suspicious blood test results the world athletics governing body reportedly suppressed.

It means hearing people talk but not asking for details about disgruntled U.