SO CLOSE AND YET SO FAR
Ahmed piling up Canadian records, but frustrated by missing world podium
Mohammed Ahmed scribbled his name all over the Canadian athletics record book this year, but he’ll tell you it hasn’t really been a season to write home about.
He’s just 26, but can already feel the window of opportunity closing. He has been seemingly everywhere, but feels as if he hasn’t really gotten anywhere.
Such are the contradictions that will concern, motivate and sustain Ahmed, Canada’s premier male distance runner, now that the 2016-17 track and field season has hit the finish line.
He is home in Portland, Ore., finally, after spending most of the past four months on the road and the track. There were five weeks of altitude training in Park City, Utah; a week at nationals in Ottawa; 11 days at a pre-worlds endurance training camp in St. Moritz, Switzerland; two weeks at the championships in London; then quick trips to Birmingham and Zurich for Diamond League events, and finally the capper in Zagreb, Croatia, for the IAAF World Challenge.
All the travel and training, all his hard work this year produced three national records — he now owns five — but the podium too often eluded him.
“It was a so-so year. It wasn’t a terrible year by any means,” he said earlier this week. “I ran some competitive times, set a couple Canadian records, and I was competing late in the races I ran at worlds and the one race I ran at the Diamond League final.
“So I’m there or thereabouts with the best, but I’m just kind of coming up short and that left me wanting more.”
After a solid indoor campaign, he started the outdoor season by finishing sixth in the 5,000 metres at the first Diamond League event, the Prefontaine Classic in late May in Eugene, Ore. In early July he won the 5,000 metres at nationals. A month later he was eighth in the 10,000 and sixth in the 5,000 at worlds, then fifth in the mile at Birmingham, fifth in the 5,000 at Zurich and finally a podium — third in the 3,000 in Zagreb — in Canadian-record time to end his year.
“Obviously, I don’t think I took too many steps from the previous year. I was hoping to be on the podium (at worlds). That was something I envisioned. It was something I dreamt about the whole year. Every workout, every training run it was in my mind. And it’s not just in a dream form, it’s kind of a vivid picture, like it’s going to happen. To not get that is the frustrating part.”
To not know exactly how to get there makes it worse.
“When I say I’m frustrated, that’s one of the things I have in mind,” said Ahmed. “What more can I do? I’ve trained so hard. I couldn’t do any more in training.
“I think I’m doing the right
things. I think I’m doing everything I could do. I try to get the best out of my body. Just for some reason, maybe just growing, lack of technical experience, I’m just coming short. In a world championships, it’s a crap shoot. Very split-second decisions determine a lot that happens. I’m still figuring that out. What I gained at world championships will help me with that.”
He’s still in his prime, but the clock ticks on him even when he isn’t competing. He can’t quite shut it out.
“Right now I’m at the point, I’m not getting any younger,” said Ahmed. “The opportunity to be very fit, and healthy in major championships, those windows are getting smaller and smaller. You’ve got to get it while you can. I’m just trying to get on the podium as soon as I can. Maybe I’m not being patient enough.
“So long as I have the fire and desire to keep going and goals that I haven’t yet accomplished, so long as those things are there, I’ll keep going.”