Tanzania’s Alphonce Felix Simbu produced a stunning performance to snatch the world marathon gold from Germany’s Amanal Petros in Tokyo on Monday.
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 in the most dramatic of endings for the longest event of the world championships but the Tanzanian was adjudged to have finished three-hundredths ahead.
Simbu became the first athlete to win a Gold medal for Tanzania at a world championship.
It was the smallest winning margin ever in a global championships marathon.
Petros led the podium trio onto the track for what proved to be a totally gripping final 300 metres.
The German opened up down the back straight but was tracked by Simbu.
Petros thought he had won the race as he approached the finish line, but Simbu overtook him with a burst of energy to stun the German, making history for Tanzania in the process.
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 the 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.
Petros was stunned by Simbu’s stunning burst of energy to win the race in the closing seconds.
He said: “I have never seen something like this in the marathon — both the men and women’s races came down to a sprint finish. It’s like the 100 m!”
“Coming into the finish, I was thinking about winning, so a bit of me is feeling very sad. I’m sad I lost gold in the last three metres, but I am very happy also for Simbu.
“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.”
Petros dedicated his medal to his mother. “I grew up in Eritrea and haven’t seen my mum now for more than eight years, which is not easy,” he said. “It is night there now but when she wakes she will be very, very proud.”
Simbu admitted that he was not sure of his victory at the beginning of the race.
He said: “When we entered the stadium, I was not sure if I would win. 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 championship.”
Simbu won the 14th edition of the Mumbai Marathon on 15 January 2017. The same year he won the bronze medal at the 2017 World Athletics Championships Marathon with a time of 2:09:51.
In December 2024, He finished 4th in Valencia Marathon and set his personal best at 2:04:38.
Simbu finished second in the 2025 Boston Marathon, in a time of 2:05:04.
