London, Ont. runner breaks Moh Ahmed’s U23 5,000m record

At the Windy City Invite in Chicago on the weekend, Evan Burke of London, Ont., put himself in elite company by breaking Moh Ahmed’s Canadian U23 indoor record in the 5,000m, running 13:38.46.

Burke, who attends Stanford University in Palo Alto, Ca., finished sixth in the race behind the 2022 NCAA cross-country champion Charles Hicks, clocking the sixth-fastest 5,000m time in his school’s history.

These guys are helping rewrite the Card 5,000 indoor top-10 list: Charles Hicks (l.) wins the Windy City Invite in 13:22.05 (No.3), Devin Hart (r.) runs 13:33.49 (No.5), and Evan Burke (m.) runs 13:38.46 (No.7)!#GoStanford pic.twitter.com/PYlTDaCfq3

— StanfordXCTF (@StanfordXCTF) February 11, 2023

Burke’s previous accomplishments include winning the 2018 Ontario XC Championships and finishing fourth in the 3,000m at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, where he set a Canadian U18 record of 8:14.99.

His achievements eventually led him to a scholarship at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., where he is currently in his fourth year and competes with the school’s cross-country and track program, specializing in the 3,000 and 5,000m.

The previous record, held by Ahmed, was set in 2011, when he ran 13:41.74 at the Texas A&M Invite. Burke bested Ahmed’s time by three seconds. 

Burke’s record is the third Canadian U23 record to be broken in this 2022-2023 indoor season, joining Quebec’s Olivier Desmeules of Penn State University, who broke the 600m record, and Vancouver’s Ceili McCabe of West Virginia University, who broke her own women’s 3,000m record in December.