Canada’s Mohammed Ahmed has won silver in the men’s 5,000-metre race at the Tokyo Olympics.
Ahmed ran in a time of 12:58:61. Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda took gold with a time of 12:58:15 and American Paul Chelimo claimed the bronze.
Ahmed had hung in the middle of a tight pack of runners for much of the race, but managed to sprint on the last lap to challenge the leaders.
Another Canadian, Justyn Knight, came in seventh place.
It’s Canada’s first Olympic medal in the men’s 5,000 m, and it’s fitting that Ahmed delivered it.
The 30-year-old runner from St. Catharines, Ont., has blazed a trail for Canadian distance runners on the global scene in the past few years.
His bronze in the 5,000 m at the 2019 world championships in Doha, Qatar, was Canada’s first world championship medal in a distance event.
Last summer, he sliced 11 seconds off his own Canadian record, running 12:47.20 seconds in a high-performance meet in Portland, where he trains with the Bowerman Track Club.
It was also a North American record, and saw Ahmed crack the top 10 all-time in that distance in the world.
Ahmed opened the Tokyo Olympics with a sixth place in the 10,000 metres, taking the lead with less than two laps to go before running out of gas over the final 300 metres.
— with files from the Canadian Press