Canada's Moh Ahmed starts 4th Olympics with 4th-place finish in men's 10,000 metres
Audrey Leduc sprints to new Canadian record in women's 100m
Moh Ahmed of St. Catharines, Ont., kicked off his fourth Olympics with a fourth-place finish in the men's 10,000 metres.
The 33-year-old ran a season-best time of 26 minutes 43.79 seconds and held a top-two position with a few laps left. However, he fell behind in the final stretch to miss out on his first-ever podium finish in the race at an Olympics or world championship.
"I ran that as well as I could," he said. "I covered every single move, I felt really good. Every time I commanded my body to move, it responded really well. I knew this race was gonna be really, really tough because it had eight of the top 14 all-timers or something like that.
"But this was the fastest 10,000-metre race ever because of the depth, ... I worked really, really hard this year, all I was looking forward to was a championship. ... I think I executed that race really, really well I just didn't have anything left in the last 50 [metres]."
Uganda's Joshua Cheptegei earned gold with an Olympic record (26:43.14), Ethiopia's Berihu Aregawi took silver (26:43.44) and the United States' Grant Fisher grabbed bronze (26:43.46).
Earlier Friday, world champion Ethan Katzberg booked himself a ticket into Sunday's men's hammer throw final.
The Nanaimo, B.C., native threw 79.93 metres to lead Group B. Rowan Hamilton of Chilliwack, B.C., also qualified with a personal-best throw of 77.78 metres to pace Group A.
Katzberg is the top-ranked hammer thrower and owns the world-leading mark this year at 84.38 metres, also the world's furthest throw in 16 years. The 22-year-old is making his Olympic debut after breaking out in 2023 by winning gold at the world championships in Budapest, Hungary.
Audrey Leduc breaks Canadian record
Audrey Leduc left a mark in her Olympic debut.
The 25-year-old sprinter from Gatineau, Que., won her heat and set a Canadian record in the women's 100 metres Friday at the Paris Games.
She shot out of the blocks for a time of 10.95 seconds — beating her previous Canadian record of 10.96 — to qualify for Saturday's semifinals at 1:50 p.m. ET (CBC Gem, CBC Olympics app) with the sixth-fastest sprint at Stade de France.
"I had a feeling I had this in me," she said. "But the goal was to get a feel for the track, to see what it was like. We saw it on the practice track, it's fast. But the crowd, to experience it, to feel it and to do it, to be even more ready for [Saturday]."
Leduc beat Jamaica's Tia Clayton (11.00) and Britain's Imani Lansiquot (11.10) in her heat. The top three finishers from each heat advanced to the semifinals. The final takes place two hours later on Saturday.
Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith of Ivory Coast posted the best time of 10.87, her best of the season.
"You really feel that it's a fast track," Leduc said. "I wanted to set a personal best, that's done. Winning my heat is even better."
After the Canadian trials in Montreal at the end of June, Leduc competed in the London Diamond League 4x100 relay, followed by a training camp with the Canadian team in the Barcelona heat.
She believes those two stops helped her refine her preparation for Paris — and the big crowds of the Olympics. There should be a full house of 66,500 people at the Stade de France on Saturday.
"In London there were a lot of people, too. When I settled on the line, I told myself, 'OK, I need to prepare for Paris,"' she said. "Barcelona allowed us to get used to the time difference and the heat, especially."
Leduc is well aware that the semifinal will be tougher than her qualifying heat, but she's convinced she can perform even better than Friday.
"I'll have to execute at the right time, that's the beauty of the Games," she said. "We've worked on starts in recent weeks. I have a good feeling."
U.S. sets world record in 4x400m mixed relay
The United States broke its own world record in the 4x400 mixed relay in the opening heats at the Paris Olympics, crossing the line in three minutes 7.41 seconds.
They set the previous mark of 3:08.80 at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest.
The U.S. led midway through the second lap in a text book performance, overcoming a fast field in the opening heat in which four national records were broken on top of the world mark.
"I've gotten quite a few practices in over the last few days and we've just gotten better," said Shamier Little, who ran the second leg for the Americans. "We've got great chemistry."
The French team were willed across the finish by a partisan home crowd at the Stade de France, as they held off Belgium and Jamaica to finish second in 3:10.60 in the rarely contested event.
The 4x400 mixed relay final is set for Saturday.
Richardson breezes through in Olympic debut
Sha'Carri Richardson blazed through her opening round in the 100, winning her first-ever race at the Olympics in 10.94 seconds to easily qualify for the semifinals.
The American captured the first of eight first-round races on the opening day of track action at a jam-packed Stade de France.
Unlike Olympic trials earlier this month, Richardson got off to a nice start, kicked into overdrive and cruised into the finish, tapping her chest with her hands as she crossed the line.
She'll race in the semifinals Saturday night, and if she advances there, she'll go for gold a few hours later.
World champ Katzberg eyes hammer throw gold
Ethan Katzberg is off to Sunday's Olympic men's hammer throw final.
Katzberg is the top-ranked hammer thrower and owns the world-leading mark this year at 84.38, also the world's furthest throw in 16 years.
The 22-year-old is making his Olympic debut after breaking out in 2023 by winning gold at the world championships in Budapest, Hungary.
Kerr and Ingebrigtsen advance
The runners involved in what might be track's best rivalry stayed on a collision course. Josh Kerr and Jakob Ingebrigtsen each advanced through their opening heats in the 1,500.
They'll race again Sunday, with the final scheduled for Tuesday.
Ukraine's best high jumper moves on
World-record holder and world champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh of Ukraine jumped only twice, clearing 1.95m on the second try, which was all she needed to easily move into Sunday night's final.
There were no big surprises. Eleanor Patterson of Australia, the 2022 world champ, also made it through, as did American Vashti Cunningham, though she did so with a mark of 1.92 after missing at 1.95 three times.
With files from The Associated Press and CBC Sports
