Ahmed, Arop gearing up for World Athletics Championships with stacked races in Monaco

Many of Canada's senior track and field athletes are home, resting and/or training ahead of the national championships, which double as the World Athletics Championships trials for the Aug. 19-27 event in Budapest, Hungary.

Moh Ahmed, and Marco Arop, two elite runners and 2020 Olympians who haven't been overworked this outdoor season, have opted to race and will be the lone Canadians competing at Friday's Diamond League meet in Monaco.

Ahmed, who has only raced twice outdoors in 2023 and most recently at the Golden Gala Diamond League competition on June 2, will run the men's 5,000 metres at 3 p.m. ET against four of the top 10 performers all-time.

Ethiopia's Berihu Aregawi, the world record holder (12:40.45) over the distance, could be in tough against Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo, who ran 12:41.73 in mid-June at the Bislett Games in Oslo, Norway. World No. 1 Jacob Krop from Kenya boasts the 11th fastest time outdoors in 2023 at 12:55.57, while Ethiopian's Hagos Gebrhiwet is 10th all-time with a 12:45.82 clocking.

The live stream from Monaco begins at 2 p.m. ET on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.

The 32-year-old Ahmed from St. Catharines, Ont., was among five athletes named to the Canadian team for worlds in February. Natasha Wodak, Malindi Elmore, Cameron Levins and race walker Evan Dunfee were the others.

First-place finishers at the July 27-30 nationals in Langley, B.C., who have attained the performance standard of their respective event, will be automatically selected to Team Canada for Budapest.

Ahmed ran under the 13:07 world standard in the 5,000 with his 12:56.46 performance on June 2 in Florence, Italy. He hit the 27:10 standard in the 10,000 on March 6, 2022, clocking 26:34.14 five weeks after the Jan.