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Mohammed Ahmed breaks his own national record in 10,000m in Doha

Ahmed finishes sixth, while Joshua Cheptegei wins Uganda's first-ever gold medal in the 10,000m and Timothy Cheruiyot wins his first gold in the 1,500m

Mohammed Ahmed

Moh Ahmed broke his own Canadian record in the 10,000m in Doha moments ago, becoming the first Canadian to go sub-27 and finishing in sixth place with a time of 26:59.35. The race was a long cat-and-mouse game between Joshua Cheptegei, who would take the first-ever gold medal for Uganda over this distance, and the world junior champion, Kenya’s Rhonex Kipruto. Cheptegei finished in a world-leading 26:48.3, with Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha following exactly one second later and Kipruto taking bronze in 26:50.3.

Cheptegei now adds world champion to his Commonwealth Games gold medals over 5,000m and 10,000m, world cross-country title and 15K world record, and he is the only person besides the great Kenenisa Bekele, who came within two seconds of a marathon world record in Berlin last weekend, to win both the world cross-country championships and the world or Olympic 10,000m in the same year. (Bekele did it three straight years–2003, 2004 and 2005.)

Results
1 Joshua CHEPTEGEI UGA 26:48.36 WL
2 Yomif KEJELCHA ETH 26:49.34 PB
3 Rhonex KIPRUTO KEN 26:50.32
4 Rodgers KWEMOI KEN 26:55.36 PB
5 Andamlak BELIHU ETH 26:56.71
6 Mohammed AHMED CAN 26:59.35 NR
7 Lopez LOMONG USA 27:04.72 PB
8 Yemaneberhan CRIPPA ITA 27:10.76 NR
9 Hagos GEBRHIWET ETH 27:11.37
10 Shadrack KIPCHIRCHIR USA 27:24.74 SB

RELATED: Mohammed Ahmed wins 5,000m bronze at World Championships

Ahmed, who won the bronze medal in the 5,000m six days ago, stayed in the lead group of about 12 athletes for quite some time, as runners started to trail out the back, even going up to third position briefly before being overtaken. With three laps to go, Ahmed was in fourth, but at the bell, everything broke apart as Kejelcha surged into second position behind Cheptegei, desperately trying (but failing) to get around him and into first.

In the 1,500m final earlier this afternoon, Kenya’s perpetual bridesmaid, Timothy Cheruiyot, earned his gold medal and then some. The new champion, who was the silver medallist in 2017, again at last year’s Commonwealth Games and this year’s African Championships, led aggressively from gun to tape, finishing in 3:29.26 and destroying the field with a two-second victory over silver medallist Taoufik Makhloufi of Algeria (3:31.38, a season’s best) and Marcin Lewandowski of Poland (3:31.46), who scored a national record for Poland and its first ever world championship medal in the men’s 1,500. Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen was fourth (3:31.70) and Britain’s Jake Wightman fifth (3:31.87, a personal best).

RELATED: Gabriela DeBues-Stafford smashes her own Canadian record in insanely fast Worlds 1,500m final

The top 10 men all ran inside 3:35.

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