Why a 4th-place finish in 10,000m meant as much to Moh Ahmed as ‘most Olympic medals’

Fourth place finishes at the Olympics are supposed to be painful.

And for Moh Ahmed in the men’s 10,000 metres, that may have genuinely been true. But after a race in which 13 men ran faster than the previous Olympic record, which had held since 2008, the Canadian appeared more satisfied than anguished.

“Honestly I have no regrets. I think I ran that really, really f—ing well,” he told CBC Sports’ Devin Heroux after the race. 

“I was in position with 50 [metres to go], you know what I’m saying? And I just, I don’t know. I mean, my legs are really, really dead. I did everything I could, the cues. I wasn’t really worried about it. A fourth person blew past me. I was like ‘go through your gears, go through your gears.’

“So, hey, I gave it everything I had and yes, I’m disappointed, but I gave everything I had.”

WATCH l Ahmed speaks with CBC Sports after 10,000:

In one of the wildest track races in Olympic history, Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei claimed gold in 26 minutes 43.14 seconds. Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi scored silver in 26:43.44 seconds and American Grant Fisher earned bronze at 26:43.46.

Ahmed missed the podium by 13 hundredths of a second.

Still, for the 33-year-old from St. Catharines, Ont., the fourth-place finish was his best Olympic 10,000 result in four tries. He won silver in the 5,000m at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, an event which he’ll contest again in Paris beginning with heats on Wednesday.

But he seemed almost equally proud of Friday’s result as his podium appearance.

Even if Ahmed is unable to repeat his 5,000m medal performance, he should still be able to walk away from Paris pleased with his showing in a 10,000m race many view as the most competitive on the track due to a depth of field that features almost every country in the world, and specialists ranging from the 5,000 to the marathon.

In a way, the 10,000 is among the most relatable events at the Olympics — your casual weekend runner is probably more likely to run that distance than a 100-metre dash.

Coolsaet called the race at Paris’ Stade de France “the craziest 10k I’ve ever seen.”

Marley Dickinson, an athletics journalist with Canadian Running, agreed.

“To have that amount of people running in that 10,000-metre field and having that fast a result, yeah, I think it was probably the greatest Olympic 10K we’ll see for a long time,” Dickinson said.

‘Moh ran such a perfect race’

And for a while, it was shaping up to be Ahmed’s second career Olympic medal.

Working together, a trio of Ethopians set a fast pace from the jump, aiming to use what they perceived as an endurance advantage over the rest of the field.

The strategy that played right into the lone Canadian’s hands.

“It was hard from the start,” said Marley Dickinson, an athletics journalist for Canadian Running who was on hand for the race. “Which kind of fits Moh’s style a little bit more. So I thought honestly, sitting there in the stands, until the last lap was finished, I thought, Moh is really going to be on the podium here.”

But Ahmed found himself in fourth place at the bell lap. Ugandan world-record holder Joshua Cheptegei had just moved to the front of the pack, and the sprint was on.

Four hundred metres to the Olympic podium, and Ahmed made his move early, edging past two of the Ethopians and sitting second in Lane 1 ahead of the final straight.

“Moh ran such a perfect race. He positioned himself just perfectly the whole time. If he was gonna get a medal, that’s exactly where you wanted to be with 100 metres to go,” Coolsaet said.

Suddenly, everything changed. With about 50 metres left, Ahmed looked to his right and saw Fisher blow past him. Then, all the way out in Lane 3, Aregawi made his move.

In a flash, Ahmed’s medal was gone.

“At that point, it’s just raw leg speed at the end of 25 laps. So when you’re kicking the best guys in the world and you’re coming in fourth, there’s nothing wrong with that,” Coolsaet said.

WATCH | Ahmed places 4th:

Canada’s Moh Ahmed just misses the Olympic 10,000m podium with 4th place finish

Moh Ahmed of St. Catharines, Ont., finished in fourth place in the Olympic men’s 10,000-metre race, while Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei broke the Olympic record to claim the gold medal.

Regrouping ahead of 5,000

The broadcasters on the worldwide feed of the race speculated that the finish could even end up being closer than the men’s 100.

“It’s crazy that a race over 10,000 metres kind of came down to two-tenths of a second for a medal,” Dickinson added.

Now, the task for Ahmed is to regroup and reload for the 5,000 in just a couple days’ time. 

But a repeat medal won’t necessarily be an easy task — not in a race featuring Cheptegei and reigning Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen.

“In terms of how he ran, to walk away from the 10K, this is something you can be happy about. I mean, obviously yes, he didn’t come up with the medal, but … he executed well, covered the gaps, knows he’s fit,” Dickinson said.

Still, Ahmed may have lost a half-pace on his top speed from three years ago — a gap that could prove massive in a race that’s featured more and more 1,500-metre specialists like Ingebrigtsen.

Not to mention the exhaustion from just having completed the fastest Olympic 10,000 of all time.

“The fact that this 10K was run so hard versus a tactical race where they might quote, unquote be jogging for 5K and then ramp it up [makes it] harder to recover. But Moh’s always done such a great job of it and his results from past championships speak for themselves where he always comes back in the 5K,” Coolsaet said.