Tanzania’s Alphonce Felix Simbu won the men’s marathon Monday at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, using a stirring final kick to chase down and stun Germany’s Amanal Petros in a photo finish.
After two hours and nine minutes and over 42 kilometers of racing, it looked like Petros was going to deliver Germany its first-ever gold medal in a running event at the world championships. But Simbu found a middle-distance-like final kick in the final meters to edge Petros and instead deliver his country’s first world gold of any kind.
Both hit the tape in 2:09.48, but a short review declared Simbu the winner by 0.03 seconds. It was the closest men’s marathon ever at a world championships.
“When I arrived here, I told myself I was not going to give up,” Simbu said after the race, according to Olympics.com. “I just stayed with the group; it helped me, and it ended really well. Just look at the finish and the kick.”
The lead pack dwindled steadily over the race’s final minutes, with Uganda’s Abel Chelangat leading a group of nine at the 39-kilometer mark. By the 40km mark, that lead pack was down to five — Chelangat, Simbu, Petros, Italy’s Iliass Aouani and Israel’s Haimro Alame.
Alphonce Felix Simbu, left, chased down Germany’s Amanal Petros just in time to win Monday’s marathon. (Matthias Hangst / Getty Images)
As they turned for the race’s finish in the Japan National Stadium, Chelangat and Alame faded, leaving Simbu, Petros and Aouani to race for the medals.
Aouani led the trio into the stadium, but Petros soon passed him and looked poised to pull away. But Simbu — the 2017 world bronze medalist and silver medalist at this year’s Boston Marathon — stayed close enough that a surge in the last 50 meters saw them cross the line nearly simultaneously. Petros glanced over twice during the final strides and collapsed across the line. He put his hands on his head as he realized he’d ended up with the silver medal.
“Coming into the finish, I was thinking about winning, so a bit of me is feeling very sad,” Petros said, according to Olympics.com. “But I have to accept it.”
Aouani took the bronze in 2:09.53.
(Top photo of Alphonce Felix Simbu, left, beating Amanal Petros to the line: Jewel Samad / AFP via Getty Images)
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