An appeal submitted by Canadian distance runner Moh Ahmed was rejected Wednesday shortly after the reigning Olympic silver medallist in the men’s 5,000 metres was tripped late in his first-round heat in Paris.
Ahmed, who was boxed in for much of the race, had moved off the rail about 600m from the finish but got tangled with a group of runners and fell about 50 metres from the start of the final lap. He was spotted limping and grimacing after exiting the track at Stade de France.
“People were pushing quite a lot, but I thought I was holding my position,” Ahmed told CBC Sports’ Devin Heroux minutes after the 20-athlete race that saw four others fall to the track. “Maybe I put myself in a terrible position [on the rail]. I was making my move. I just ate it hard. [Frenchman] Hugo [Hay] clipped me from the back.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen [with an appeal] but that sucks.”
Moments after the race, CBC Sports analyst Dave Moorcroft wasn’t confident Ahmed would be successful in his appeal.
“I’m pessimistic but I feel he’s gotta go for it with complete conviction because the final without Moh would be a great, great shame,” he said.
WATCH l Ahmed tripped, knocked out of Olympic 5,000m heat in Paris:
Moh Ahmed falls to the ground during the opening heat of the men’s 5,000-metre event at Paris 2024. Fellow Canadian Thomas Farfad secures a spot in the final.
“You don’t win an appeal just because you’re an Olympic silver medallist. There’s gotta be a context for putting an athlete [in the next race].
“With Moh, was he impeded [in his progress] or was it a trip? Maybe the context is the fact there were so many [athletes] in that heat,” continued Moorcroft, who ran a world-record 13:00.41 over 1,500 metres in 1982. “It’s hard to imagine, and Moh probably recognizes that this appeal is going to be a bigger challenge than the race.
The four others who fell advanced to Saturday’s 1:50 p.m. ET final following referee review.
WATCH | Ahmed talks to CBC Sports about what led to his fall:
Canada’s Moh Ahmed describes the circumstances around his fall in the men’s 5,000-metre heat at Paris 2024. Ahmed says he will appeal the decision but it turned out to be unsuccessful
By the time Ahmed regained his footing, the rest of the field was well ahead of him.
The front runners closed in a sensational 55.47, with Narve Gilje Nordås of Norway prevailing in 14:06.16 ahead of Ethiopia’s Hagos Gebrhiwet (14:08.18).
“It’s not the athletes’ fault there were [20 athletes in the race] but it is the athletes’ fault [the race] was so slow,” Moorcroft said. “In running so slowly, it increases the likelihood of things going wrong.”
Thomas Fafard of Repentigny, Que., claimed the eighth and last qualifying spot from the heat for the final, clocking 14:09.37 in a slowly paced race.
At the recent Olympic trials in Montreal, the 25-year-old’s second-place effort behind Ahmed represented his debut race as a professional with Brooks. His personal best is 13:05.07, set on May 7 in Brussels.