Why a 4th-place finish in 10,000m meant as much to Moh Ahmed as 'most Olympic medals'

Fourth place finishes at the Olympics are supposed to be painful.

And for Moh Ahmed in the men's 10,000 metres, that may have genuinely been true. But after a race in which 13 men ran faster than the previous Olympic record, which had held since 2008, the Canadian appeared more satisfied than anguished.

"Honestly I have no regrets. I think I ran that really, really f—ing well," he told CBC Sports' Devin Heroux after the race. 

"I was in position with 50 [metres to go], you know what I'm saying? And I just, I don't know. I mean, my legs are really, really dead. I did everything I could, the cues. I wasn't really worried about it. A fourth person blew past me. I was like 'go through your gears, go through your gears.'

"So, hey, I gave it everything I had and yes, I'm disappointed, but I gave everything I had."

WATCH l Ahmed speaks with CBC Sports after 10,000:

In one of the wildest track races in Olympic history, Uganda's Joshua Cheptegei claimed gold in 26 minutes 43.14 seconds. Ethiopia's Berihu Aregawi scored silver in 26:43.44 seconds and American Grant Fisher earned bronze at 26:43.46.

Ahmed missed the podium by 13 hundredths of a second.

Still, for the 33-year-old from St. Catharines, Ont., the fourth-place finish was his best Olympic 10,000 result in four tries. He won silver in the 5,000m at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, an event which he'll contest again in Paris beginning with heats on Wednesday.

But he seemed almost equally proud of Friday's result as his podium appearance.

Even if Ahmed is unable to repeat his 5,000m medal performance, he should still be able to walk away from Paris pleased with his showing in a 10,000m race many view as the most competitive on the track due to a depth of field that features almost every country in the world, and specialists ranging from the 5,000 to the marathon.

In a way, the 10,000 is among the most relatable events at the Olympics — your casual weekend runner is probably more likely to run that distance than a 100-metre dash.

Coolsaet called the race at Paris' Stade de France "the craziest 10k I've ever seen."

Marley Dickinson, an athletics journalist with Canadian Running, agreed.