Canadian record-holder Mo Ahmed took more than three seconds off his own Canadian 5,000m record at Rome Diamond League today, running 12:58.16 in 12.5 gruelling laps of the track and a sixth-place finish. Ahmed, who won two silver medals at the Commonwealth Games last year, hung with the lead group through most of the race, which was dominated by Ethiopians Telahun Bekele, who was first across the line by a nose (12:52.98), Selemon Barega in second (12:53.04) and Hagos Gebrhiwet in third (12:54.92).

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Justyn Knight set a new PB of 13:09.76 in the distance with his 10th-place finish.

Gabriela Stafford also set a new PB of 4:01.28 in the 1,500m, narrowly missing the Canadian record, for fifth place behind world record-holder Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia in 3:56.28 in first, Laura Muir of the UK in 3:56.73 and Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia in 3:59.96. The US’s Jenny Simpson finished fourth.

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Brandon McBride ran an excellent race in the 800m, finishing third in 1:43.9, only 0.7s off his Canadian record, and just behind the US’s Donavan Brazier and Nigel Amos of Botswana in a photo finish (1:43.63 and 1:43.65).

In other results, Sage Watson finished seventh in the 400m hurdles in 55.71, in only her second race of the season. The US’s Delilah Muhammad was first, in 53.67. Shamier Little, also of the US, was second, in 54.40, and Zuzana Hejnová of the Czech Republic was third, in 54.82.

Jonathan Cabral finished eighth in the 110m hurdles with a 13.61, just off his PB of 13.34. Sergey Shubenkov was first, in 13.26, Andrew Pozzi of the UK was second, in 13.29 and Antonio Alkana of South Africa was third, in 13.30.