Tanzania’s Alphonce Simbu claims win by 0.03secs
Final sprint ended with tighter result than 100m finals
One of the most dramatic finales in marathon history ended with one athlete at these Tokyo World Athletics Championships diving for the line, another unsure of the result, and Seiko’s photo-finish machine being called into emergency action.
And after 26.2 miles, and more than two hours of sweat and brutal toil, the print confirmed that Tanzania’s Alphonce Simbu had pipped Germany’s Amanal Petros in a sprint finish.
Incredibly the gap between the two men – 0.03sec – was tighter than both the men’s and women’s 100m finals. It also marked the second straight day a marathon was decided with an all-out sprint to the line after Peres Jepchirchir won the women’s race from Tigst Assefa by two seconds.
