On Friday at the Rome Diamond League meet in Italy, Canada’s Moh Ahmed finished seventh in the men’s 5,000m with a time of 12:54.90, meeting the 2025 World Championship standard for the event. This marks the ninth time in Ahmed’s career that he has run under 13 minutes for 5,000m.
This achievement comes five days after he set a new Canadian record in the men’s 3,000m at the Silesia Diamond League in Poland, clocking 7:31.96. In the men’s 5,000m race in Rome, the field went out at a pace aimed at Joshua Cheptegei’s world record of 12:35.36 through the first 2,000m, but warm conditions took a toll on the runners, slowing the pace around the 3,000m mark.
The qualifying window for the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo opened on Aug. 1, just before the Paris Olympics, where Ahmed secured the men’s 10,000m standard with his fourth-place finish (in 26:44.79); he missed the 5,000m standard at the Olympics due to a fall in the qualifying round, which kept him out of the final. The qualifying standard for the men’s 5,000m event is 13 minutes and one second, four seconds faster than it was for the Paris Olympics.
Ahmed is one of only two Canadian athletes to have broken the 13-minute barrier in the men’s 5,000m; the other is Justyn Knight. The 33-year-old from St. Catharines, Ont., has achieved this feat nine times in his career.
Ethiopia’s Hagos Gebrhiwet won the men’s 5,000m race in Rome with a time of 12:51.07, while his compatriots Yomif Kejelcha and Selemon Barega took second and third place, respectively.
Canada’s Alysha Newman third in pole vault
Alysha Newman of London, Ont., followed up her bronze-medal-winning performance in Paris with another third-place finish at the Rome Diamond League in the women’s pole vault. Newman cleared her first three heights easily, but did not clear her three attempts at 4.83 metres. The Olympic champion from Australia, Nina Kennedy, won the event with her 4.83m clearance on countback.
For full results from the 2024 Rome Diamond League, check here.
