Improved fitness has Canadian runner Moh Ahmed confident of return to world podium

At an altitude training camp earlier this month, Moh Ahmed didn't know if he was in good shape or would be at the start of this week's World Athletics Championships in Budapest.

Ahmed's performance in his only two outdoor track races this year — June 2 in Italy and July 21 in Monaco — was well shy of his 2020 Olympic silver-medal effort in Tokyo over 5,000 metres.

"I know training has indicated better," the Canadian runner told CBC Sports from Switzerland, where he was getting acclimated to the six-hour time change. "I should be ready and competitive [at worlds], and better than last year."

Ahmed, who was fifth in the 5,000 and sixth in the 10,000 last July in Eugene, Ore., noted he has been happy with his training volume, consistency and physical well-being between sessions since Day 1 last October.

"It hasn't been perfect, and I've had little setbacks here and there," said Ahmed, who was hampered by a minor hamstring issue over the winter. "[But] I've seen glimpses of good movement and feeling in my body [throughout the season] that would indicate [I'm] heading in the right direction."

Jerry Schumacher, who has coached Ahmed since 2014 at the now Eugene-based Bowerman Track Club, raved about the 32-year-old athlete to CBC Sports when discussing how he looked running at 5,400 feet in Switzerland.

Canada's Moh Ahmed just misses out on the podium at the World Athletics Championships in the men's 5,000m with a fifth-place finish in a time of 13:10.46