Ahmed defends national title in 5,000 metres
Strong finishing kick sends Olympians first across the finish line at national championships
Mo Ahmed seemed to take it easy for a while, but he took care of business when the time came.
The St. Catharines athlete of the year for 2016 displayed a devastating finishing kick on the way to successfully defending the men’s 5,000-metre championship at the Canadian Track and Field Championships Thursday night in Ottawa.
The winning time wasn’t anything special at 14:02.36, nearly 61 seconds over Ahmed’s personal best, but it was more than sufficient to hold off Justyn Knight of Vaughan, who completed the race in 14:03.16.
The 1-2 results for Ahmed and Knight confirmed their spots on Canada’s team for the International Association of Athletics Federations world championships in London in early August. Both had surpassed the qualifying standard of 13:22.60 or better in races in the United States in May.
Ahmed, 26, said the pre-championship game plan had been to go hard from the front of the pack, but a gusting wind and warm, humid weather conditions forced a re-think. So, he settled into a tactical position inside the top five until the race official rang the bell to signify the final lap.
Then he went for it and nobody else could match the closing speed of Ahmed, who is coming off five weeks of high-altitude training in Utah. Before that, he had finished sixth in 13:08 against a high-quality field in the Prefontaine Classic in Oregon.
“Nothing is guaranteed and, if it can happen here ...” Ahmed said. “So I just wanted to take care of what I could take care of, and that’s trying to win. It’s good to be a national champ.”
Ahmed, who was born in Somalia but raised in St. Catharines, finished fourth in the 5,000 metres in the 2016 Rio Olympics, which taught him that he belonged with the best in the world.
“Ever since I stepped off the track at Rio, I’ve been thinking about London. It’s very close now,” he said. “I definitely felt for a little while that I could (compete for a medal). It’s about putting myself in the mix. I think that’s what Rio showed me, that I could be there to the end. I know what it feels like.”
Ahmed attended St. Catharines Collegiate before going on to become a seven-time all-American at University of Wisconsin.
His fourth-place finish at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro was the best ever by a Canadian in the 5,000 metres.
Knight, who attends the University of Syracuse, most recently raced to third place in the 5,000 metres of the NCAA championships. He was well aware of the need to finish second or better on Thursday to earn the trip to London, so he attached himself to Ahmed as best he could and stayed there as long as possible.
“It was fantastic out there,” said Knight, who made his first appearance in the senior men’s 5,000 metres at nationals. “I went out there just trying to qualify (for London), and I did what I had to do.”
Andrea Seccafien of Guelph won the women’s 5,000 and confirmed her own ticket for the world championships with a winning time of 15:39.66. Calgary’s Jessica O’Connell (15:40.91) was second, also clinching a spot in the worlds, while Toronto’s Sasha Gollish was third in 15:42.59. – with files from Postmedia News