Abdihamid Nur, Phoenix North High School alum, makes 2024 Paris Olympics in 5,000m

Make it two.

For the second time at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials, an NAU runner has punched his ticket to the 2024 Paris Olympics. Last week, it was the recently graduated Nico Young in the men’s 10,000 meters . On Sunday, it was Abdihamid “Abdi” Nur, who finished second in the men’s 5,000 meters in 13:09.01 to secure his spot on Team USA.

The final lap of the race was a neck-and-neck battle with Nike’s Grant Fisher, who already won the 10,000 earlier in the meet. Nur made a big move on Fisher on the backstretch, overtaking him with about 250 meters left. But then Fisher responded in the last 100 meters, where the pair of runners sprinted to the finish line, separated by .26 seconds.

Nur is a product of Phoenix North High, having graduated in 2017. He was the 2016 AIA Division I state champion in cross-country as a senior. But Nur didn’t have as much success on the track, finishing eighth in the 1,600 meters and fourth in the 3,200 meters at the state meet. Nur was a latecomer to the sport of running, picking it up in his junior year at North High. He enrolled at Coconino Community College, where he ran cross-country.

Yet, NAU coach Mike Smith saw something special in the young Nur, and took a chance on the Phoenix runner.

That decision paid off as Nur developed into one of the NCAA’s top runners, becoming a building block in NAU’s dynastic run in cross-country. He was part of back-to-back NCAA title-winning teams in cross-country and holds the college record in the outdoor 5,000-meters.

Nur runs professionally for Nike and lives and trains in Flagstaff, still working with Smith as his coach. It is the third straight U.S. team that Nur has made — he competed at the 2022 and 2023 World Athletics Championships.

In 2017, Nur was asked by MileSplit Arizona’s Irv Garibaldi during his senior year of high school, “What advice would you give to younger athletes?”

Nur responded: “Never be scared to race, always have positive thoughts, never give up and most importantly have fun doing it.”

It was Nur who took the fight to Fisher, the top American long-distance runner at the moment, on the last lap. And it is Nur, known for his affectionate smile, who is still having fun doing it.

Now, he’s headed to Paris.

Logan Stanley is a sports reporter with The Arizona Republic who primarily focuses on high school, ASU and Olympic sports. To suggest ideas for human-interest stories and other news, reach out to Stanley at logan.stanley@gannett.com or 707-293-7650. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @LSscribe .

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Abdihamid Nur, Phoenix North High School alum, makes 2024 Paris Olympics in 5,000m