St Catharines distance runner finishes sixth at Tokyo Olympics
Published July 30, 2021 at 6:19 pm
Mohammed Ahmed may not have medaled at the Tokyo Olympics’ 10000M race in the early hours this morning (July 30) but he did have his best showing ever finishing sixth.
In the past, Ahmed finished 18th at the 2012 London Olympics and 32nd at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
However, he’s not done with Tokyo just yet. In one week, he’ll run in the 5000M and before the games began, that race was looking like his best medal shot. At the Rio Games, he just missed the podium, finishing fourth.
In fact, at the 2019 World Athletics Championships, Ahmed won the bronze medal in the 5000M event, the first victory for a Canadian runner. Ahmed led late in the race, briefly dropping to fifth position in the final stretch, before recovering to take third place
Ahmed, 30, moved to St Catharines with his parents to St Catharines at the age of 11 from Mogadishu, Somalia and attended St. Catharines Collegiate. From there, it was on to University of Wisconsin-Madison where he graduated in 2014.
During his time at college, he amassed 11 NCAA All-American awards in track and cross country and an Olympic berth in the 10,000M at the 2012 London Games.
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Just prior to college, though, he was a four-time Canadian Junior 5000M champion.
(Photo courtesy of worldathletics.org)
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