Manchester Road Race Icon Chelimo Nabs Dramatic Olympic Bronze

MANCHESTER, CT — Manchester Road Race regular and American track and field star Paul Chelimo won the bronze medal in the 5,000 meters Friday at the Tokyo Olympics.

Chelimo dove across the finish line to take third in what has been one of the most dramatic finishes of the games.

Chelimo's time of 12:59.05 was just behind silver medalist Mohammed Ahmed of Canada, whose official time was the same as Chelimo's.

Gold medalist Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda had a time of 12:58.15.

Chelimo was the 2017 Manchester Road Race winner in 2017 with a time of 21:32 over the 4.748-mile course. He was second the following year when Edward Cheserek of Kenya smashed the race record (21:16) in the famed zero-degree wind chill race.

Chelimo won the silver medal in the 5,000 meters at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and was the bronze medalist in that event last summer at the World Championships in London.