Tanzanian runner Alphonce Simbu won the men’s marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo

Alphonce Simbu won the men’s marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in dramatic fashion, beating Amanal Petros (Germany) in a photo finish.

Both runners crossed the line in 2:09.48 hours, the most dramatic finish and the smallest margin of victory in the history of the World Athletics Championships’ marathon. The photo finish separated the two by only 0.03 sec.

“When we entered the stadium, I wasn’t sure I had won. And after the finish, I didn’t know who had won. When I saw the replays on the video wall with my name at the top, I was relieved”, said Alphonce Simbu after his victory.

The difference is much smaller than at the 2001 World Athletics Championships in Edmonton, when just a second separated Ethiopia’s Gezahegne Abera and Kenya’s Simon Biwott.

Italy’s Iliass Aouani won the bronze medal, finishing five seconds behind the pair.

It was the first major title for Alphonce Simbu, who won a bronze medal in the marathon at the 2017 World Athletics Championships in London and finished second in the Boston Marathon in April.

The 33-year-old Alphonce Simbu became the first Tanzanian athlete to win a gold medal at such a forum, while Amanal Petros brought home only Germany’s second marathon medal at a world championships. After the race, he said the achievement was a very special moment for him and his family, especially his mother, who lives in the conflict zone in Ethiopia and whom he has not seen for more than a decade. Amanal Petros revealed that he had trained for four months at an altitude of 2,500m in Kenya, describing the preparation as “brutal”.