St Catharines runner takes silver in Tokyo Olympics

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Published August 6, 2021 at 3:32 pm

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St Catharines distance runner Mohammed Ahmed finally has his Olympic medal – a silver in the Men’s 5000M at the Tokyo Olympics.

With less than 100 metres left, Ahmed, 30, turned on the jets, pushing himself from fourth to second, triumphantly landing on the podium, a significant step-up from his close fourth in the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Ahmed ran a stellar final lap, coming close to gold medallist Joshua Cheptegei but with 50 metres to go, there was no catching the speedy Ugandan.

Cheptegei finished in 12 minutes 58.15 seconds followed by Ahmed at 12:58.61.

Paul Chelimo of the United States, who Ahmed passed coming out of the final turn, took bronze in 12:59.05.

A week ago, Ahmed finished sixth in the Men’s 10000M but it was long thought by track observers that the 5000M was his best shot at an Olympic medal.

His bronze in the 5000M at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar, was the country’s first world championship medal in a distance event.

As far as medals are concerned, St Catharines went two-for-two at the Tokyo Olympics after Kristen Kit delivered a gold medal performance last week as coxswain in the Women’s eight rowing crew.

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