Ahmed, Arop gearing up for World Athletics Championships with stacked races in Monaco

Many of Canada's senior track and field athletes are home, resting and/or training ahead of the national championships, which double as the World Athletics Championships trials for the Aug. 19-27 event in Budapest, Hungary.

Moh Ahmed, and Marco Arop, two elite runners and 2020 Olympians who haven't been overworked this outdoor season, have opted to race and will be the lone Canadians competing at Friday's Diamond League meet in Monaco.

Ahmed, who has only raced twice outdoors in 2023 and most recently at the Golden Gala Diamond League competition on June 2, will run the men's 5,000 metres at 3 p.m. ET against four of the top 10 performers all-time.

Ethiopia's Berihu Aregawi, the world record holder (12:40.45) over the distance, could be in tough against Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo, who ran 12:41.73 in mid-June at the Bislett Games in Oslo, Norway. World No. 1 Jacob Krop from Kenya boasts the 11th fastest time outdoors in 2023 at 12:55.57, while Ethiopian's Hagos Gebrhiwet is 10th all-time with a 12:45.82 clocking.

The live stream from Monaco begins at 2 p.m. ET on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.

The 32-year-old Ahmed from St. Catharines, Ont., was among five athletes named to the Canadian team for worlds in February. Natasha Wodak, Malindi Elmore, Cameron Levins and race walker Evan Dunfee were the others.

First-place finishers at the July 27-30 nationals in Langley, B.C., who have attained the performance standard of their respective event, will be automatically selected to Team Canada for Budapest.

Ahmed ran under the 13:07 world standard in the 5,000 with his 12:56.46 performance on June 2 in Florence, Italy. He hit the 27:10 standard in the 10,000 on March 6, 2022, clocking 26:34.14 five weeks after the Jan. 31 qualifying window opened.

Ahmed, who became Canada's first Olympic medallist in the 5,000 with silver in Tokyo in 2021, is planning to run both events at worlds. The Somalia-born runner will not race at nationals, his agent Dan Lilot confirmed to CBC Sports.

On May 27, he stopped the clock in 28:21.1 to win the Ottawa 10K over Canadian marathon/half marathon record holder Cam Levins for his first Canadian 10K Championships title.

WATCH l Ahmed victorious at the Ottawa 10K:

Moh Ahmed wins Ottawa 10K at Canadian Championships

2 years ago

Duration 1:46

Moh Ahmed is victorious at the Ottawa 10K with a time of 28 minutes 21.1 seconds to claim his first Canadian 10K Championships title.

Last September, Ahmed had his 12:47.20 North American record lowered by 2-10ths of a second by Calgary-born Grant Fisher (12:46.96) of Michigan.

Meanwhile, Friday will mark only the fourth individual race of the outdoor campaign for Arop and third in the 800. On July 2, he clocked 1:48.95 to win the event in his native Edmonton.

Arop, 24, is the world's top-ranked athlete in the men's 800. The reigning Canadian champion, who will return to Langley and defend his national title, ran a 1:43.30 season best at the Meeting de Paris on June 9, just 10-100ths of a second off Brandon McBride's national mark.

WATCH | Arop delivers season-best effort at Meeting de Paris:

Edmonton's Marco Arop sets season best time, finishes 2nd in men's 800m in Paris

1 year ago

Duration 3:52

Edmonton's Marco Arop finishes second in the men's 800m Diamond League event in Paris, with a seasons best time of 1:43.30.

The 2022 world bronze medallist, Arop is fifth in the Diamond League standings with 11 points over two events. He'll be aiming to improve upon his second-place finish at last year's Diamond League Final in Zurich, where Arop was passed by then-world No. 1 Emmanuel Korir of Kenya. Arop posted a 1:43.38 season best.

Friday's 800 at 2:25 p.m. ET is being dubbed by some as the revenge match from the world final last summer in Eugene, Ore.

Korir, again, is the man to beat. The 2022 world champion and reigning Olympic gold medallist was 10th at the Meeting de Paris in 1:47.71 but has a 1:42.05 personal best. Algeria's Djamel Sedjati, who collected world silver last summer, boasts a 1:43.40 SB.

2 other events to watch from Monaco

Kenya's Faith Kipyegon, who in the span of a week shattered worlds records in the women's 1,500 and 5,000, will run the mile at 2:35 p.m. ET.

Sifan Hassan, the reigning Olympic champion in the 5,000 and 10,000, has held the world mark in the women's outdoor mile since July 12, 2019 when she ran 4:12.33 at Stade Louis II in Monaco.

Kipyegon's challengers on Friday include British athlete and Olympic 1,500 silver medallist Laura Muir and Ethiopia's Freweyni Hailu, who was fourth in the 1,500 at worlds last year.

The men's 400 at 2:04 p.m. ET will undoubtedly be one of the more anticipated races of the night.

Karsten Warholm leads the eight-man field entering the event, having run 46.52 — beating his closest competitor by over a second — to win his season-opening 400-metre hurdles race on June 15 in Oslo. He went on to prevail in Stockholm and in his native Norway over the next three weeks.

He could be pushed by world champion Alison Dos Santos (44.73 SB) while Olympic silver medallist Rai Benjamin of the United States, who ran a winning 46.62 at the recent USATF championships, is no longer on the start list.

Diamond League calendar

• London — July 23
• Shanghai — July 29
• Shenzhen, China — Aug. 3
• Zurich — Aug. 31
• Brussels — Sept. 8
• Eugene, Ore. – Sept. 16-17 (DL Final)

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