Mo Ahmed’s gutsy 5k performance deserves more recognition

he was fantastic. a slight level above Chelimo. WOuld have medaled in the 10000 if that was his goal, but he went for all of it. No shame in that. Probably played it a bit more conservatively in the 5k, which is also a good move. You want to come home with at least one medal!

who knows about the marathon. I would guess anywhere between 2:04 and 2:08. But it is a special distance and he may not be cut out for it at all.

Has he even run a half?

high school xc coach wrote:

he was fantastic. a slight level above Chelimo. WOuld have medaled in the 10000 if that was his goal, but he went for all of it. No shame in that. Probably played it a bit more conservatively in the 5k, which is also a good move. You want to come home with at least one medal!

who knows about the marathon. I would guess anywhere between 2:04 and 2:08. But it is a special distance and he may not be cut out for it at all.

Has he even run a half?

the 10,000 was first. if he was gonna medal in the 10,000, he would've medaled in the 10,000.

Respect for Mo, racing under the maple flag for my home country of Canada.

Great runner, but watch the race again. I’m not defending Chelimo and his tactics by any means, but Mo shoved several people from behind in the final. This is getting to be all too common for him.

Yeah, he lost me at Avila 1500 racing. Great runner, and tough competitor, but it's hard to pull for a guy that does anything to win.

corndog99 wrote:

Yeah, he lost me at Avila 1500 racing. Great runner, and tough competitor, but it's hard to pull for a guy that does anything to win.

I thought Canadians were the nicest people in the world ?

Marvellous9 wrote:

corndog99 wrote:

Yeah, he lost me at Avila 1500 racing. Great runner, and tough competitor, but it's hard to pull for a guy that does anything to win.

I thought Canadians were the nicest people in the world ?

That is a myth which needs to be dispelled. One should not confuse surface niceness with niceness from the heart.

When I lived in Montreal back in the early 2000s I used to notice how much more friendly service was in restaurants when I crossed the border into the US in Vermont and into Burlington. I’m not dissing Canadians here but just an observation.

Canadians tend to be reserved and hold back a lot, similar to Swedes I would guess, aside from a certain Swede who animates a very long thread on this website and who is something of a curious maverick.

Makes sense he try the Marathon, especially as Chelimo transitions to the roads too.

But tbh (and I may be wrong) I cant remember ever having seen Ahmed do many road races at any distance?

Ghost1 wrote:

Marvellous9 wrote:

I thought Canadians were the nicest people in the world ?

That is a myth which needs to be dispelled. One should not confuse surface niceness with niceness from the heart.

When I lived in Montreal back in the early 2000s I used to notice how much more friendly service was in restaurants when I crossed the border into the US in Vermont and into Burlington. I’m not dissing Canadians here but just an observation.

Canadians tend to be reserved and hold back a lot, similar to Swedes I would guess, aside from a certain Swede who animates a very long thread on this website and who is something of a curious maverick.

That's because you were in Quebec.

Think Again wrote:

Great runner, but watch the race again. I’m not defending Chelimo and his tactics by any means, but Mo shoved several people from behind in the final. This is getting to be all too common for him.

You are correct. I was going to just post “The Pusher” before I saw your post. He also pushed at Doha. At Tokyo as they’re coming off the last turn Chelimo is in front of him and The Pusher tries to push Chelimo to the right. He also pushed other in front him earlier in the race and those weren’t gentle shoves.

But they all do it to some extent. I still believe the Japanese did a great job in letting them run.

Ghost1 wrote:

Marvellous9 wrote:

I thought Canadians were the nicest people in the world ?

That is a myth which needs to be dispelled. One should not confuse surface niceness with niceness from the heart.

When I lived in Montreal back in the early 2000s I used to notice how much more friendly service was in restaurants when I crossed the border into the US in Vermont and into Burlington. I’m not dissing Canadians here but just an observation.

Canadians tend to be reserved and hold back a lot, similar to Swedes I would guess, aside from a certain Swede who animates a very long thread on this website and who is something of a curious maverick.

That's the American South with the phony nicesness.

I completely agree. There is a level of acceptable aggressiveness. He surpasses my accepatability level and should have been DQed in many of those situations.

birdbeard wrote:

high school xc coach wrote:

he was fantastic. a slight level above Chelimo. WOuld have medaled in the 10000 if that was his goal, but he went for all of it. No shame in that. Probably played it a bit more conservatively in the 5k, which is also a good move. You want to come home with at least one medal!

who knows about the marathon. I would guess anywhere between 2:04 and 2:08. But it is a special distance and he may not be cut out for it at all.

Has he even run a half?

the 10,000 was first. if he was gonna medal in the 10,000, he would've medaled in the 10,000.

You completely missed his point, which is that Mo went all out to *win* the race, rather than settle for third,... and probably blew a bronze medal by doing so. (A lot like Pre in '72.)

And it looked to me like his analysis is probably spot-on.