Alphonce Felix Simbu snatched gold in the first photo finish at a major championship marathon on Monday, edging out German Amanal Petros in a dramatic race to the line to give Tanzania its maiden world title.
The photo finish showed the 42.195km race was decided by three hundredths of a second as Simbu surged past the diving Petros at the line, closer than the 0.05-second gap between the gold and silver medallists in the men’s 100m final on Sunday.
Simbu and Petros were given the same time of two hours, nine minutes and 48 seconds, the German taking the silver despite heading the field as the leaders entered Tokyo’s National Stadium. Italian Iliass Aouani took the bronze in 2:09.53.
“When we entered the stadium, I was not sure if I would win,” the 33-year-old Simbu said. “I did not know if I had won. But when I saw the video screens and me on the top of the results, I felt relieved.
“I made history today – the first Tanzanian gold medal at a world championships.”
Smallest winning margin in a global marathon race
The finish was closer than at the 2001 championships in Edmonton, when Ethiopian Gezahegne Abera edged Kenyan Simon Biwott by a single second.
South African Josia Thugwane won the closest Olympic men’s marathon by three seconds from South Korean Lee Bong-ju at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
It was a first global title for Simbu, who won bronze in the marathon at the London world championships in 2017 and finished second in the Boston marathon in April.
Simbu struck back for East African distance running the morning after Frenchman Jimmy Gressier became the first man born outside the region to win the 10,000km title for more than 40 years.
The early morning event opened with another incident more reminiscent of sprints than endurance races when Vincent Kipkemoi Ngetich of Kenya jumped the gun, forcing a restart.
More shocks followed as two of the fastest runners in the field, Ethiopia’s Tadese Takele and Deresa Geleta, who took gold and silver at the Tokyo city marathon in March, dropped off with less than 10km to go.
The race was wide open for much of the distance, with a couple of dozen runners in the leading cluster some 90 minutes in.
The pack then gradually thinned out as some faded in the morning heat, leaving Simbu, Petros and Aouani clear of the field coming into the stadium.
Eritrean-born Petros looked set to take the title back to Europe until Simbu found a late kick and ran him down at the line.
“It’s like the 100 metres,” said Petros. “Coming into the finish I was thinking about winning so a bit of me is feeling very sad.
“But I have to accept it. As an athlete you have to learn for tomorrow, train hard, keep going and be thankful for the silver.”
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