 Print
Canada's Ahmed wins bronze medal in men's 5,000 metres at track worlds championships
10-01-2019
28-year-old Mohammed Ahmed, after claiming Canada's first distance medal ever at the world championships was draping himself in the Canadian flag.
Ahmed and his family came to Canada from Mogadishu, Somalia when he was 11 years old and moved to St. Catharines, Ontario. He is a two-time Olympian, having competed in London in 2012 and Rio in 2016.
"I was born in Somalia, I've got the desert in my blood," he said on the eve of the semifinal. "But I'm proud of that record because it's something that the entire Canadian running community can savour."
"To be honest I don't know where the hell I am," exclaimed Ahmed as he first reacted. "It's just surreal."
“I said to myself, “Don’t let this opportunity get away from you,” I stuck to the plan, get to the front at some point and be the driver, not the passenger,” said Ahmed.
 Ahmed got himself into a good position and sat in around fifth for the first 3K of the race, he took the lead with 1K to go, was passed by Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway in the final lap but ultimately come through for the bronze. Ahmed finished in 13:01.11.
In 2017, Ahmed, who is Muslim, was flagged at security and his flight from the Portland airport left without him, grounding any chance he had of racing in the Diamond League final in Switzerland.
I've always had to deal with people thinking I'm some sort of terrorist or something," Ahmed said in 2017. "It's tough, especially being young and you know you didn't do anything wrong. I've tried to be as patient as I could, but you're going to come across people who push buttons that they really shouldn't be pushing."
Ahmed became the third Canadian medallist at the 2019 worlds.
Footnotes:
|