Gained (ground) on him...

[99bottles]

Is there any difference between gain on someone and gain ground on someone? I looked them up both in online dictionaries, and they seem the same to me. As an example, here is a sentence I made up...

The runner looked over his shoulder. The other runners had gained on him more (ground) than he had expected.

 

[Tarheel]

You could say:

The other runners had gained more ground on him than he had expected.

They are certain to gain on him if he looks over his shoulder, because that slows you down.

 

[99bottles]

You could say:

The other runners had gained more ground on him than he had expected.

They are certain to gain on him if he looks over his shoulder, because that slows you down.

So is there no difference between gain on and gain ground on?

 

[Tarheel]

Offhand, no.

But note how I phrased it in my post.