Canadian Olympic runner Moh Ahmed finds daylight just in time for historic silver in the 5,000 metres: ‘It’s fricking unbelievable’

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This article was published 06/08/2021 (1542 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TOKYO—As the bell sounded to signify the final lap of an epic men’s Olympic 5,000 metres on Friday night, Canada’s Moh Ahmed had a view of the proceedings that was both informative and, for a heart-stopping moment, seemingly regrettable.

The three-time Olympian from St. Catharines was sitting in sixth place, among a tightly bunched pack of leaders with Joshua Cheptegei, the world-record holder in the event, commanding the race from up front. From that position, Ahmed said the upside was that he could read the body language of his competitors. And for the most part, he liked what he saw. In a race run at a punishing pace in the oppressive humidity of a Tokyo summer, he saw pain in a lot of those strides, Cheptegei excepted.

“I mean, everybody was just, like, flailing,” Ahmed said.

And as much as Ahmed acknowledged that he was hurting, too, as the final lap turned into the final 200 metres, a strategic thought popped into his head.

“I was like, ‘OK. You just have to kick, man,’” he said.

There was only one problem. If Ahmed’s spirit was willing, his positioning was weak. He was running along the rail behind Paul Chelimo of the United States. And given that Chelimo was flanked by Kenya’s Nicholas Kimeli, Ahmed was essentially boxed in.

“I stayed on the inside the whole time. I was like, I feel like I can get past (Chelimo). I know I can get past him. I just need some room to accelerate,’” Ahmed said.

And with less than 100 metres remaining, somehow Ahmed got that room. Chelimo, drifting around the final turn, ceded enough space so that Ahmed could pass on the inside. And with a determined burst, Ahmed followed Cheptegei over the finish line to earn a silver medal. It was Canada’s first medal in the event. It was Ahmed’s first at an Olympics. And when he was asked to describe the feeling that came with finish, the first word that popped to mind was “shock.”

“It’s fricking unbelievable,” he said. “The shock in my face at the podium is the journey that I’ve been on. Like, 16 fricking years. I’m 30 years old. I don’t know how many more opportunities I have at this. So to do it is incredible.”

Five years ago in Rio, Ahmed felt he was ready to hang with the world’s best, and he nearly did. But when he finished fourth, a little more than a second off the podium, he wept the tears of heartbreak.

“Yeah, it was hard … It was difficult,” Ahmed said. “But what I told myself was, ‘Don’t let this define you. Learn from it. Let it motivate you. Allow it to make you a better athlete.’ And I feel like that’s what it did.”

Indeed, Ahmed, for all his big-stage disappointments — and he finished dead last in the 10,000 metres at the 2012 Games in London — is riding a clear improvement curve. He won bronze in the 5,000 at the world championships in 2019. And though he finished sixth in last week’s 10,000, that race was another one in which he ran shoulder to shoulder with the best in the world. Though he came up short, he took his shot. And he arrived at Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium on Friday night ready to fire away yet again.

“I have a lot of frustrations and a lot of disappointments in my body over these last five years,” he said. “So I knew those last 200 metres that I was going to summon that, that pain. Like, ‘Not again.’ That’s really what it was that last 200 metres … ‘Fight for everything.’ That’s what I was telling myself.”

In a landmark performance for Canadian distance running, Toronto’s Justyn Knight finished seventh. Though Knight expressed disappointment in his performance, explaining how he made a tactical error that kept him from staying with the leaders when it mattered, Ahmed was beyond complimentary to his 25-year-old teammate.

“(Knight) is going to be a force to be reckoned with. I think he’s just got to get a little bit stronger, a little bit of growth,” Ahmed said. “This is a disappointment for him. I know he could have medalled. But I think that’s just going to fuel him that much further. I’m proud of him. He’s putting the pressure on me as well and making me up my game.”

Precisely what Friday’s race will do for the future of Canadian distance running is anyone’s guess. Knight, for his part, theorized about how a new generation of speedsters will be inspired to take up the sport.

“We’re both Ontario kids, so I’ll say this: The OFSAA kids are going to look and say, ‘This guy was in OFSAA, too, and he’s an Olympic silver medallist,’” Knight said. “The dream is made now. So hopefully those kids and the younger generation can now dream big and try to do even better than us in the future.”

Indeed, Canada, for all its success as a sprinting nation, hasn’t historically been equipped to keep world-class company in longer distance events. But for all Ahmed’s promise over the past decade-plus, Friday’s race felt like a now-or-never moment.

“You have two laps to go, it’s the Olympics. This almost didn’t happen this year,” Knight said. “And I don’t know what was going through (Ahmed’s) mind, but just from how I know Moh, I know he was thinking, ‘This is my shot. And if I don’t go now, I don’t want to be mad at myself.’ I think he showed you guys today he put himself in a position to win, and he came so close to doing it. That’s just what separates him from everybody else, is his mental. He’s a really tough guy.”

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Ahmed’s is a toughness built on years of what he’s defined as failure. But that, of course, is what’s made him a success. On Friday he spoke of being inspired watching the 2004 Olympics, where Morocco’s Hicham El-Guerrouj and Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele were the distance-running stars of the show.

“I was like, ‘I want to do that,’” Ahmed said.

And by “that” he didn’t mean just make it to the Olympics. He meant stand on a podium there — something that had never been done by a Canadian in the 5,000 or 10,000 until Ahmed did it Friday night. Perhaps Cheptegei was uncatchable – although Ahmed suggested that if it hadn’t been boxed in for so long, he might have given the world-record holder a run for the gold. The beauty of Ahmed’s performance is that he showed that a Canadian could size up a field of the world’s best runners and say with conviction: These guys are flailing. You just have to kick, man.

“Many people didn’t think that I could do it,” Ahmed said. “But I’ve always believed in myself and I’ve always found the right people to surround myself with and just get me there … Every disappointment, every race that didn’t go to plan has gotten me here. People, especially in Canada, they remember the disappointment in my face and the tears I was shedding on live TV five years ago in Rio. But honestly, I needed that, to grow as an athlete and to get to the next level.”

Dave Feschuk is a Toronto-based sports columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @dfeschuk