Mo Katir, at the level of the best, but penalised by inexperience

The 5000m final at the Tokyo Olympics was dominated by Uganda's Joshua Cheptegei.

From the start he let his opponents know that he was going to set a fast pace. After a couple of laps in the lead he handed over to his compatriot Jacob Kiplimo, who set a medium to high pace in Joshua's favour.

His strategy was that his rivals to beat were spending forces facing a final thousand meters very fast.

With six laps to go, Cheptegei took the lead again to avoid surprises and set an even faster pace.

The Spanish athlete lost the right place and paid for being in lane two for many laps.

American Paul Chelimo was in the top five for the whole race and never lost the right place. This led him to take third place.

Being well positioned in the pack and finding the right place is essential to stay fresh at the end of the race and Mohamed Katir never managed to do so. Continuous changes of pace drained his energy.

The pace continued to accelerate with the intervention of the Kenyan Kimeli and the Ethiopian Mengesha. Ethiopian nationalised Bahraini Birhanu Balew was also trying to stay among the front runners.

Katir made the final cut with 1,000 metres to go. The Kenyan set a pace that only those with a real chance of a medal could keep up. A group of ten athletes with two laps to go.

Just as the final lap approached, Katir could not keep up the pace and began to fall behind. With six hundred metres to go, champion Cheptegei wanted no surprises and made a considerable change of pace to take on the last five hundred metres in a sprint.

Only the Kenyan Kilemi, the American Chelimo, his compatriot Kiplimo and the Canadian Ahmed kept up the pace. Bahrain's Balew dropped off the pace.

In the last 100 metres, Cheptegei's superiority was clear and he won the gold medal in an overwhelming way.

The surprise came from Canada's Mohamed Ahmed, of Somali origin, who produced a superb final hundred metres to take the silver medal.

The bronze was contested by Kilemi and Chelimo. The American, in the last ten metres and throwing himself at the finish line, won the medal. 

Then came the other Ugandan Kiplimo, Balew, Justyn Knigth and eighth Mohamed Katir.

The winner's time was 12.58 minutes and Katir has a time of 12.50 minutes.

It seems accessible, but Mo was penalised for those unnecessary changes of pace to place himself better. In an Olympic final any detail is relevant and penalises you.

An eighth place in a first participation is a good position and you have to think about the experience that the Spanish athlete has accumulated.

He has to think that the qualifying rounds have nothing to do with the final race and that the placement and the wear and tear in the first ten laps is fundamental for the final outcome.

Mohamed and his coach have to improve their tactics and keep on working. What has been achieved is good, but much more can be achieved.