© Copyright – 2017 – Athletics Illustrated
The other Mo making the media rounds Sunday is Canadian 26-year-old Mo Ahmed of St. Catharines, Ontario. The big news is his record-breaking run of 13:04.60 over 5,000-metres at Boston University, a banked 200-metre indoor track.
In 2012 he told Athletics Illustrated, “Every athlete would love to keep making progress and improving every year and I am not any different. I would love to get down to middle-to-low 27s in the 10k and mid-to-low 13s in the 5k.”
Done and done and he continues to make progress. In fact, Ahmed is looking like a serious medal threat for the 2017 IAAF World Track and Field Championships that will be taking place in London, UK starting August 4th and wrapping up on the 13th.
Ahmed already owns the national outdoor record of 13:01.74, which he ran last year on the Hayward Field track in Eugene, Oregon on May 28th. His new indoor Canadian record is faster than the previous Canadian outdoor record. Typically outdoor records are faster than indoors.
Ahmed runs for the Bowerman Track Club in Portland, Oregon and is coached by Jerry Schumacher. Ahmed is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin. Schumacher is a former Wisconsin Badger coach.
Sunday, Ahmed took Cameron Levins’ national record of 13:19.16 also set at Boston University three years ago.
Ahmed’s record run is the fastest indoor 5,000-metre time in the world for 2017. It currently stands as the 11th fastest indoor time in history.
Ahmed has run as fast as 27:34.64 for the 10,000-metre event.
He is the gold medallist at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto and took fourth place at the Rio Olympic Games. He has also competed in the London Olympics in both the 5,000-metre and 10,000-metre events.
During the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Ahmed finished fourth behind Ethiopia’s Hagos Gebrhiwet, who finished in the time of 13:04.35, American Paul Chelimo. He crossed the line in the time of 13:03.90, while Mo Farah successfully defended his gold medal from the London Olympics with his 13:03.30 performance.
During the 2015 World Championships in athletics 5,000-metre final, the race was tactical and the final results were slow in comparison to athlete’s personal bests with the winning time 13:50.38 by Farah.
Farah also won gold during the 2013 world championships. He finished in the time of 13:26.98.
Ahmed has every opportunity to medal in London this summer and perhaps this spring become the first Canadian to break into the world-elite benchmark of sub-13-minutes.
The current world record is held by Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia with his performance of 12:37.35 from May 1, 2004.
