<p><span lang="EN-US">Canada&rsquo;s Moh Ahmed has been a force on the world distance running scene for the past decade, notably finishing fourth in the Rio Olympics 5000m before snatching the bronze medal at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">As he prepares for his third Olympic Games from the Bowerman Track Club&rsquo;s altitude training base in Park City, Utah, he knows he cannot be complacent going forward.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">At the Florence Wanda Diamond League meeting on 10 June, Ahmed finished third in the 5000m in 12:50.12 &ndash; not far off his Canadian record of 12:47.20. That splendid result has come to be expected of the 30-year-old. The surprise, however, was that his fellow Canadian Justyn Knight, who had finished runner-up to Ahmed at the Canadian Championships in 2017, 2018 and 2019, claimed fifth in that stellar field with a huge personal best of 12:51.93.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">This pair are now the two fastest North American 5000m runners of all-time.<br /><br /></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/4d55b20c-67e0-4d57-b206-2d7d01501210.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="633" /></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"><br />&ldquo;I wouldn</span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA">&rsquo;</span><span lang="EN-US">t say I was surprised,&rdquo; says Knight, 25. &ldquo;It was my first &lsquo;</span>5km<span lang="EN-US">&rsquo; in two years. The last one I ran was at the 2019 World Championships. Now we are in 2021, a lot of time has passed and I have been working really hard to improve myself.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">&ldquo;I was able to do lots of base training to make sure I was strong enough and then, leading up to that 5</span><span lang="IT">000m</span><span lang="EN-US">, I was fortunate enough to get into a couple of good 1</span><span lang="IT">500m</span><span lang="EN-US"> races. I think I knew where I was at.&rdquo;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">The jovial Toronto area native made the final of the 2017 World Championships 5000m, six months before winning the NCAA indoor 5000m title for Syracuse University. Precocious talent doesn&rsquo;t go far enough in describing his ability. But it was a huge 1500m personal best of 3:33.41 in May of this year which signalled a major breakthrough in his specialty was imminent. There is one reason for it.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">While most NCAA athletes find themselves in a position where they must change coaches when turning professional, Knight&rsquo;s graduation from university coincided with his coach Chris Fox&rsquo;s hiring as head of Reebok Boston Track Club in 2018.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">&ldquo;I was fortunate to leave college and have the same coach,&rdquo; he admits. &ldquo;We had a tremendous amount of success at Syracuse and we accomplis</span>h<span lang="EN-US">ed a lot of great things. He knows me really well, I know him really well and he knows how to get me fired up. I listen to the coach and have complete trust and faith in him.&rdquo;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">The club is based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Knight jokes: &ldquo;Charlottesville is too long a word to fit on a singlet!&rdquo; With a smile he apologises for the confusion over names.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">The area is known for its hills and autumn training includes many repetitions on some of the hilly dirt roads outside the city. Recently, Knight has been &lsquo;honing the speed&rsquo; needed for the Olympics and he believes he will be equally prepared for a &lsquo;sit and kick&rsquo; race or one that is fast from the gun. Surprisingly, one common and seemingly universal training element is missing from his experiences.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">&ldquo;I have never done altitude training,&rdquo; he reveals. &ldquo;I have been begging my coach to try it. He actually promised me that after 2020 maybe we could try it, then the Olympics got delayed. Maybe next year I will be lucky. It&rsquo;s something I have always wanted to try but never had the opportunity to do.&rdquo;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">A 15-minute interview turns into a two-hour chat as the humble athlete enjoys discussing the history of athletics. Learning that his manager, Ray Flynn, still holds the Irish mile record (3:49.77) comes as a delightful surprise. It is evident he has time on his hands. Because of travel restrictions which required Canadians to quarantine upon returning home he has not been back to Toronto since Christmas. Friends and family are missed.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">&ldquo;My days are pretty relaxed, especi</span>a<span lang="EN-US">lly during Covid. I don&rsquo;t really go out so to reduce the possibility of coming in contact with the virus,&rdquo; he admits. &ldquo;I have been very fortunate, I have been staying in touch with my friends on F</span>ace<span lang="EN-US">Time. I love watching movies, I play a lot of games as well. Sometimes &ndash; and in case my mum reads this &ndash; I do crack open a book every now and then.&rdquo;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Knight laughs at this statement. But beneath the cheerful exterior there lies a dedicated and ambitious athlete who is always seeking improvement. He was ninth in the 2017 World Championships 5000m final while a student-athlete and 10th in Doha two years later. Those experiences, as well as that Florence 5000m, showed him he can run with the best in the world.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">&ldquo;I was just happy to break that 13-minute barrier but there are still some improvements that I can make,&rdquo; he declares. &ldquo;Florence was a huge confidence booster, especially because I was running with the talented group I was running with.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">&ldquo;Usually I am accustomed to running with the second group, I guess, being part of the chase pack. And in that Florence</span> <span lang="EN-US">Diamond League race I was in the top five or six front group. </span><span lang="EN-US">Hopefully I can be in contention to do something special at the Olympics.&rdquo;<br /><br /></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61004e5eb643ff4dc4765dd9.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="647" /></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"><br />Clearly this young man has ambitions and the talent to perhaps pull off some surprises in the coming years. Ironically, he credits Ahmed&rsquo;s longstanding experiences on the world stage as being an influence. And he lets out a little secret.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">&ldquo;Moh has been a huge inspiration to me ever since I started running,&rdquo; he declares with candour. &ldquo;My freshman year in college, back when Facebook was the most popu</span><span lang="PT">lar social media site</span><span lang="EN-US">, I wrote him a message just reaching out to him, just saying: &lsquo;Hey,</span> <span lang="EN-US">I look up to you, do you have any tips as a runner?&rsquo; He got back to me fairly quickly.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">&ldquo;That meant the world to me and that was kind of the start of our friendship. Just to see Moh throughout the years bring Canadian distance running back with all these Canadian records he has set, and all these championships races he has run in, and how he has always represented us in the best way possible. I</span>t<span lang="EN-US">&rsquo;s just really nice to have someone to look up to.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">&ldquo;Now I am in a position where I am competing alongside him and we have the potential to do something special, at the same time, for Canada &ndash; that would just be a great accomplishment for us both and would mean a lot to our nation as well.&rdquo;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Knight will race only the 5000m while Ahmed is planning the 5000m and 10,000m double in Tokyo. In Doha, the 5000m final was six days before the 10,000m where Ahmed came back to finish sixth in a Canadian record of 26:59.35. In Tokyo, the 10,000m final is on the first night of athletics competition, leaving Ahmed four days to recover before the 5000m heats. </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">The Canadian team will first gather in Gifu, Japan, where they will adjust to the time difference and to the heat. Expectations will run high that these two Canadian distance runners will pack a 1-2 punch in the 5000m.</span></p>
<p><strong><span lang="EN-US">Paul&nbsp;Gains for World Athletics</span></strong></p>

Moh Ahmed and Justyn Knight will be looking to pack a 1-2 punch at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Ahmed and Knight: Canada’s formidable 5000m duo

<p><br />As the world combats the effects of Covid-19 what passed for normal has been scrapped, putting undue pressure on Canadian Olympians preparing for an uncertain future. They have met with mixed fortunes.</p>
<p>Moh Ahmed has epitomised what is possible, stunning the athletics world with a new North American 5000m record of 12:47.20 which makes him the tenth fastest man in history. That sublime performance was achieved in a Bowerman Track Club intra squad meeting on 10 July.</p>
<p>The fact that the race was run on Portland&rsquo;s Jesuit High School track, adhering to the local county rules capping the number of people gathering at 25, is even more remarkable. But Ahmed&rsquo;s strongest quality is perhaps his incredible focus.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I just tried to control what I can control like my emotions and how to deal with the uncertainties,&rdquo; he explains. &ldquo;With 16 months until the Olympics we had to balance things, taking one day at a time.</p>
<p>&ldquo;We were split into groups of three. I was training with Lopez Lomong and Grant Fisher and we worked really well together.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Whereas the team normally met as a large group at the tree-lined oval on Nike&rsquo;s main campus Ahmed reveals they were often searching for a place to meet for track sessions once their home base was &lsquo;out of commission.&rsquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;We ran into facility issues like everybody else. Slowly we were able to get back into more rhythm,&rdquo; he recalls. &ldquo;Fortunately we found some tracks all over the area. We were going 30 minutes this way and thirty minutes that way.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Workouts on the track were sometimes in the morning and sometimes in late afternoon, depending on the availability of the track. They tried to avoid the busiest times when members of the public were usually present. That was necessary to avoid violating restrictions on the number of people using the facility at the same time. The group also managed an eight-week high altitude training camp in Park City, Utah when restrictions were eased in that state. That required a 12-hour drive each way.</p>
<p>Ahmed who has been healthy with nothing but minor physical complaints this past decade has missed regular physiotherapy treatments. He relied on Zoom meetings with his Vancouver, Canada based therapist and gave himself massages using a lacrosse ball.</p>
<p>Having achieved a 5000m personal best, which is more congruent with the 2019 World Championships bronze medal he earned in Doha, he would love to test himself against the world&rsquo;s best but isn&rsquo;t holding out much hope.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Honestly, it would be nice to get an international competition, for sure. That&rsquo;s who you really compare yourself to and how much progress you have made,&rdquo; he declares. &ldquo;So I really do wish for that. I just don&rsquo;t think it's really going to happen because of all the obstacles you have to overcome. You have the travel you have to do these tests. You are taking risks flying across the pond and taking a chance at potentially contracting the virus overseas. There all those types of risks.&rdquo;</p>
<h3>Levins&rsquo;s search for Tokyo qualifier</h3>
<p>Across the city of Portland Canadian marathon record holder Cam Levins has not been as fortunate with his Olympic preparations. His debut race in the 2018 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon yielded the record of 2:09:25 but that was before the 2020 Olympic qualifying period began. He had planned to race in the 2020 Rotterdam marathon on 5 April to get the standard.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Rotterdam was one of the last marathons at that time to actually cancel,&rdquo; he recalls. &ldquo;So I was kind of holding out hope. And, I was over in Kenya at the time training and I was mostly trying to get out of Kenya. Then I was thinking &lsquo;what do I do now?&rsquo;</p>
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<p style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B9pbSxOnQJJ/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">I have been training in Kenya for the last 3 weeks and had planned to stay until the Rotterdam marathon (now postponed). COVID-19 is an unprecedented situation with constantly evolving information. Events are being cancelled or rescheduled daily and what is currently still scheduled in ~4 weeks may still require cancellation that we cannot anticipate. I am in great shape and would love to run any available race, as I still do need Olympic qualifying standard. However, at the suggestion of my coach, my agent and my governing body the recommendation is to return home to await future instruction. My individual health risk is low, but social distancing is an act of generosity and solidarity for the benefit of others. I support the efforts of all government and athletic leaders who have made the difficult decisions to disrupt the lives of so many to help control the escalation of this disease and protect our most vulnerable populations. If the Tokyo Olympics do indeed take place this summer, I urge the International Olympic Committee, World Athletics and Athletics Canada to take this global crisis into consideration when naming all competing athletes. 📸/tunes: @lukakiptangkandi . . . #running #runnersofinstagram #runningmotivation #runner #runningcommunity #marathontraining #kenya🇰🇪 #canadians #camada #mountainrange #tokyo2020 #training #instafit #runnerslife #trainingdays</a></p>
<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by <a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" href="https://www.instagram.com/camlevins/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Cameron Levins</a> (@camlevins) on <time style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;" datetime="2020-03-12T20:38:38+00:00">Mar 12, 2020 at 1:38pm PDT</time></p>
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<p>&ldquo;Countries were starting to close borders and Kenya specifically was really worried about it. They didn&rsquo;t have any Covid cases so they were really concerned about flights coming in and going out. I think it took me double the amount of time to get home. Part of that was having flights cancelled.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Once he arrived home he connected with his coach Jim Finlayson and the pair agreed to go into a period of maintaining fitness without taking risks.</p>
<p>&ldquo;After Rotterdam was cancelled we just went into this stage of restarting the build and not going too, too hard. Part of it was that I was not able to get therapy and massage,&rdquo; he explains.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It has been a balance of staying healthy more so than what race I am going to do. Once we know what that is - I will probably know a couple of months out - and I should be able to build up from where I am. I have been keeping things stable, maintaining, and not going crazy.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Levins&rsquo;s wife Elizabeth is a pharmacist at a local Portland hospital and with all the documented fear amongst frontline healthcare workers he is putting on a brave face.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Even though she is technically in an environment where she could, potentially, have more exposure than most, the hospital takes precautions,&rdquo; he admits. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s probably not really that high a risk. I am not going to worry about it. I still try to avoid interactions with others - just in case.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Levins fully expects to be on the starting line of the Olympics presuming they are held in 2021. First he must find a race in which to qualify.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;I have certainly looked into Fukuoka on December 6th,&rdquo; he reveals. &ldquo;I am not 100% sure but I have got to imagine that is potentially happening.&rdquo;</p>
<h3>Balancing childcare with training</h3>
<p>While Levins and his wife don&rsquo;t have children at this point the issue of childcare is foremost in the mind of Canadian 800m record holder Melissa Bishop-Nriagu. The 2015 World Championships silver medallist gave birth to her daughter, Corinne, in 2018 and had relied on professional childcare to get her training in.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I think the biggest adjustment we have had to make is childcare,&rdquo; says the 32 year old. &ldquo;My husband worked full time through all of Covid and still is, so it wasn&rsquo;t as easy as it was to drop off Corinne and go and do what I had to do in a day for workouts. We had to plan workouts around it. It is still the toughest thing to deal with right now.</p>
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Melissa Bishop wins the PanAm 800m title</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>"Two other things that have been challenging: we have had no facilities and no therapy. I can get massage right now at least as Windsor moved into phase two and facility wise we are jumping fences to get on tracks because we don&rsquo;t have anywhere else to train.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Bishop is a self-professed goal oriented athlete so when the Olympics were cancelled she took a week and a half off training to deal with the emotional side of things. She wondered, &ldquo;What am I training for?&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;Since then, the training has been the same,&rdquo; Bishop admits. &ldquo;My husband and I put a gym in our basement just before Covid happened so I had access to all the weight facilities I needed, It was still March so it was still kind of cold out and we wouldn&rsquo;t be on the track anyway. So I was able to do a lot of my runs on the streets and on the trails. Once it started warming up we started jumping fences to get on tracks and, so far other than therapy and obviously no races, things have been fairly consistent.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Bishop intends to test herself periodically with time trials to put herself through race scenarios. As a two-time Olympian (she was fourth in at the 2016 Olympics) she knows what she must do to compete with the world&rsquo;s best when permitted.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Actually I think this is a blessing in disguise for me and my team,&rdquo; says Bishop, who will be 33 in Tokyo. &ldquo;I had Corinne in 2018 and coming back from pregnancy has been a whole different ball game. I really feel in my heart I would have been ready to perform in 2020 but 2021 gives me one extra year to get everything back in order.&rdquo;</p>
<h3>Warner puts his ability to improvise to the test</h3>
<p>Bishop lives in Windsor, Ontario, just across the US border with Detroit. It is one of the regions hardest hit by Covid-19 cases, along with Greater Toronto, and is therefore subject to longer periods of restrictions by the Ontario Provincial government. Just two hours east in London restrictions are being lifted more quickly and that is just fine with Damian Warner the 2016 Olympic decathlon bronze medallist. The past four months has tested his and his coaches&rsquo; ability to improvise.</p>
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Damian Warner in the decathlon at the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;In London, all the tracks that we have are university owned,&rdquo; he laments, &ldquo;With the university being closed that messed some things up. Then we have some other tracks that are high school owned but they slowly got closed. We were running out of places to go. We found one place we are using but we still don&rsquo;t have a place where we can do jumps.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It is true that some of my competitors are able to pole vault and jump and we are not able to do that now but we have taken this time to work on some other things. Luckily enough we just got a pole yesterday so we have been able to do some pole vault runs. We have been trying to be creative and do whatever we can to stay on top of things so that once things do open up we are starting in a better place.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Unable to practice jumps he and his coaches have been using the time to improve on his weakest events - the shot put, discus and javelin.</p>
<h3>Brown: &lsquo;We know we can&rsquo;t take a half year off and be ready for Tokyo&rsquo;</h3>
<p>While Canada has dealt with the coronavirus pandemic as well as any other country, the epicentre of the outbreak, at the moment, is in the US state of Florida where Canadian sprinter Aaron Brown is living and training.</p>
<p>The Olympic 4x100m relay bronze medallist has taken all the precautions necessary with the help of his wife Preeya, who is a hospital nurse. He wears a mask, uses hand sanitizer and limits his social interactions.</p>
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Aaron Brown at the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;With the nature of both of our jobs we are around a lot of people,&rdquo; Brown says. &ldquo;Hers is a bit more risky because she is at hospital where there are confirmed cases. Most of the time, I don&rsquo;t know if it&rsquo;s by luck or chance but she is not in the same rooms as the people who have tested positive. But they do make you wear all this protective gear.</p>
<p>&ldquo;So far it has worked. We have had to trust the system. Being married to someone on the front lines that comes with the territory.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Brown, who finished sixth in the 200m and eighth in the 100m at last year&rsquo;s World Championships, found it difficult initially to continue training when news of the Olympics being postponed spread.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It is hard to have the same hunger knowing that there is no Olympics at the end of the road which is a big motivator for a lot of people but we still had to grind it out,&rdquo; he explains. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s how we make a living and if there is any kind of season we have to prepare and set up for next year. We know we can&rsquo;t take a half year off and be ready for Tokyo.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<p>But he was one of several sprinters to compete in a social distance meeting in Montverde, Florida on 4 July. He finished thirrd in the 100m final (10.20) behind Kenneth Bednarek (10.14) and Andre De Grasse (10.17).</p>
<p>&ldquo;Everybody had to wear their masks up until their race,&rdquo; he reports. &ldquo;When we raced we were one lane apart to keep our distance. We would race and then go back to our group. We didn&rsquo;t interact between races. We are still competing against each other but we are not interacting with each other. And everybody had their temperature taken when we came in.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Brown would of course like to compete internationally but knows that it is unlikely in the foreseeable future. Travelers from the US are not welcome in European Union countries and if he were to return to Canada he would be required to submit to a 14-day quarantine period.</p>
<p>Despite the challenges these Canadians face there is no doubt that through creativity and with incredible fortitude they will make their presence known once a sense of normalcy is established.</p>
<p><strong>Paul Gains for World Athletics</strong></p>

As the world combats the effects of Covid-19 what passed for normal has been scrapped, putting undue pressure on Canadian Olympians preparing for an uncertain future. They have met with mixed fortunes.

Canadian Olympians taking Covid-19 restrictions in stride

<p><br />World bronze medallist Moh Ahmed and US champion Shelby Houlihan made significant improvements on the North American 5000m records at a low-key competition at Jesuit High School in Portland on Friday night (10).</p>
<p>Ahmed&rsquo;s 12:47.20 took more than six seconds off Bernard Lagat&rsquo;s continental record set back in 2011, while Houlihan&rsquo;s 14:23.92 was a 10.53-second improvement on her own North American record from two years ago. Runner-up Karissa Schweizer also finished inside the previous continental record, clocking 14:26.34.</p>
<p>Organised by their training group, the Bowerman Track Club, the meet comprised just two 5000m races and the intention for both events was to provide the opportunity for fast times. Steeplechase specialist Colleen Quigley paced the early stages of the women&rsquo;s race, taking the field through the first 1000m in 2:55.44.</p>
<p>Fellow steeplechaser Courtney Frerichs, the 2017 world silver medallist, took up the running just before 2000m, which was passed in 5:51. Three women &ndash; Quigley, Marielle Hall and Gwen Jorgensen &ndash; withdrew at the 3000m point. Elise Cranny briefly led at that point, clocking 8:47.88 for her 3000m split, and was just ahead of Houlihan, but Cranny and Frerichs eased off for the final stages of the race, leaving just Houlihan and Schweizer out in front.</p>
<p>Houlihan drifted to the front with three laps to go and gradually started to increase the pace for the final kilometre. Schweizer managed to stick with her training partner until the final lap, which Houlihan covered in 61.4 seconds, giving her a finishing time of 14:23.92. Schweizer was second in 14:26.34.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I knew Karissa was going to try to come up on me and take the lead, but I decided I was not going to let that happen,&rdquo; Houlihan told usatf.tv after the race. &ldquo;I just kept trying to fight her off and tried to have a big kick on the last lap.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Karissa was in the race in Heusden two years ago where I set the previous record,&rdquo; added Houlihan. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been really awesome to have her as a training partner and to see how far she has come. She was only three seconds behind me today and I know she&rsquo;s going to get that 5000m record at some point.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The men&rsquo;s race played out in similar fashion, with half the field helping to set the pace for the first 3000m before leaving Ahmed and Lopez Lomong to battle it out for victory.</p>
<p>Ryan Hill (2:36.2) and Grant Fisher (5:12) were the respective leaders for the first and second kilometres as Ahmed and Lomong sat in the middle of the pack. Fisher reached 3000m in 7:46.10, closely followed by Evan Jager and Sean McGorty, but they soon stepped off the track and Ahmed took up the running with three laps to go.</p>
<p>Ahmed then started to wind up the pace and broke away from Lomong on the penultimate lap, which he covered in 59.5. He moved up another gear and ran the final 400m in 57.45 to cross the finish line in 12:47.20, smashing his own Canadian record and moving to 10th on the world all-time list. Lomong, who narrowly missed out on breaking the 13-minute barrier last year with 13:00.13, finished second in a lifetime best of 12:58.78.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Once I saw the way Shelby and Karissa attacked the last 600m, I told myself that I just had to do the same kind of thing,&rdquo; said Ahmed, whose previous best was 12:58.16. &ldquo;With two laps to go, the clock said 10:49 and I just thought, &lsquo;you can run two (minutes) flat (for the final 800m)&rsquo;. With 200m to go, I just tried to blast it as hard as I could.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m excited, it&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;ve been working really, really hard for. It&rsquo;s been an extremely challenging year, but luckily we have a good group and it was great to deliver this.&rdquo;</p>
<h3>Fraser-Pryce impresses on season opener</h3>
<p>Five months since her last race, world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce returned to competitive action at the Velocity Fest meeting in Kingston on Saturday (11).</p>
<p>Despite a stiff -2.2m/s headwind, the two-time Olympic champion won the 100m in 11.00, the fastest time in the world so far this year during this heavily disrupted season. Shashaleee Forbes was a distant second, clocking 11.49.<br /><br /></p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UepVgGYujtQ" width="500" height="280" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><br />World long jump champion Tajay Gayle was also back in action following a five-month break from competition. His opening leap of 8.52m was supported by a 4.5m/s following wind and was more than enough to win. He rounded out his series with a wind-legal 8.23m (1.6m/s).</p>
<p>Elsewhere in the Jamaican capital, Diamond League winner Shanieka Ricketts won the triple jump with 14.11m (-0.9m/s), and Shericka Jackson got the better of Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah in the 200m, 22.89 to 22.98 (-2.2m/s).</p>
<h3>Tavernier breaks French hammer record, Del Ponte clocks big PB</h3>
<p>In her first competition since the 2019 World Championships in Doha, 2015 world bronze medallist Alexandra Tavernier broke her own French hammer record in Lyon on Saturday.</p>
<p>The European silver medallist opened with 73.60m and then improved to 74.94m in the second round, adding 10 centimetres to the record she set last year in Chorzow. She went on to record distances of 72.54m and 73.46m in the fifth and sixth rounds.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="fr">Alerte record de France du marteau pour Alexandra Tavernier &agrave; Lyon : 74,94m ! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Lyon?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Lyon</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Athle?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Athle</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Le_Progres?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Le_Progres</a> <a href="https://t.co/PCkNBqpARu">pic.twitter.com/PCkNBqpARu</a></p>
&mdash; Benjamin Steen (@benjaminsteen) <a href="https://twitter.com/benjaminsteen/status/1281970459739914240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 11, 2020</a></blockquote>
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<p>&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t plan on throwing so far,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;But I expected a good performance after having some good training sessions last week. The conditions were very good; I just wanted to have fun throwing.&rdquo;</p>
<p>In the Swiss city of Bulle, Ajla Del Ponte produced a pair of back-to-back PBs in the 100m on Saturday. Following some strong performances over 150m in recent weeks, including a PB of 16.67, Del Ponte started her day with an 11.10 (1.5m/s) clocking, taking 0.11 off her PB from 2018. Later on in the final, she reduced that time to 11.08 (0.7m/s), moving her to second on the Swiss all-time list behind world 200m bronze medallist Mujinga Kambundji.<br /><br /></p>
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<p style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CCgAhNwhOwb/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">💥⏱ 11"10 sur 100 m (+1,5 m/s) pour Ajla Del Ponte 💥 2e PERF MONDIALE de l'ann&eacute;e 2e PERF SUISSE de tous les temps derri&egrave;re Mujinga Kambundji La piste magique de Bulle en feu 🔥🔥🔥</a></p>
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<p>The wind denied the 23-year-old a third PB as her 22.83 200m victory came with a 2.1m/s following breeze.</p>
<p>Silvan Wicki &ndash; who, like Del Ponte, has also impressed over 150m this year &ndash; was more fortunate with the conditions. The men&rsquo;s 100m was held with a perfect 2.0m/s following wind and Wicki was rewarded with a PB of 10.11, just 0.03 shy off the Swiss record.</p>
<p><strong>Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics</strong></p>

World bronze medallist Moh Ahmed and US champion Shelby Houlihan made significant improvements on the North American 5000m records at a low-key competition at Jesuit High School in Portland on Friday night (10).

Ahmed and Knight: Canada’s formidable 5000m duo

Canadian Olympians taking Covid-19 restrictions in stride

Ahmed and Houlihan smash North American 5000m records, Fraser-Pryce clocks 11.00