20-year-old Mohamed Al-Garni made his Olympic début at the London Games. Al-Garni qualified for the Games by meeting the qualification standards for the men's 1500 metres; his fastest time of three minutes and 34.61 seconds, set at the 2011 Pan Arab Games, was 0.89 seconds faster than the "A" qualifying standard. Al-Garni was drawn in the first heat on 3 August, finishing fifth out of fifteen runners with a time of three minutes and 36.99 seconds, and progressing into the semi-finals that took place two days later. There, he finished ninth in the second heat, achieving a time of three minutes and 36.78 seconds. Overall, he ranked 14th out of 45 athletes, and was 1.34 seconds slower than the slowest competitor from his heat to progress to the final.