Levins wins 5000m at NCAA championships

The legend of Cam Levins continues to grow.

Cam Levins added to his fast growing trophy case on Friday, with an impressive victory in the 5000m at the NCAA outdoor track and field championships in Iowa.

Levins has risen from relative obscurity in 2012 to become the most dominant distance runner in Division 1 and Canada’s most impressive track and field star.

After putting together a series of impressive meet victories this season, Levins won the 10,000m earlier this week at the championships in Des Moines. He then topped it off with a stunning finish in the 5000m, where he out-kicked the field, clocking a 58.1 second final lap. Levins ran with poise and confidence, fitting snuggly in the middle of the pack for nearly the entire race, and then unleashed his massive kick at the bell.

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“I’m a different athlete than I was in cross country”, the South Utah University star told reporters after his 5000m win. Levins is the reigning ASGI Canadian cross country champion and placed fourth at the NCCA championships last November. But he seems to have found a new gear on the track and has elevated his ability to finish off a field, even one stacked with the cream of the NCAA crop.

Levins beat an impressive field, which included Stanford rival Chris Derrick, Arizona stand-outs Stephen Sambu and Lawi Lalang and fellow Canadian Mo Ahmed, who runs for Wisconsin. “I like to feel like I can take on anybody in the last 100m”, he said of his ability to out-kick the field in the final stages of a race.

Ahmed, a native of St. Catherines, Ont., ran the “A” standard in the 10,000m earlier this week in the NCAA championships, but the slower pace in the 5000m left him well outside the 13:20 needed. He and Levins will both have a chance to sew up their bids to qualify for the games at the Canadian trials at the end of June in the 10,000m.

Levins will now have to decide whether or not he will tackle the double in London, as he did this week at the NCAA championships. With much tougher competition Levins may ultimately opt to key in on a single event, likely the 5000m, in the hope that he make the finals and place well on a global stage. But the double is certainly still on the table. Winning both distances at the highest level in the US collegiate ranks no doubt will have an impact on Levins’ final decision. As will his performances in both distances at the trials in Calgary at the end of June.