Marathon at world champs comes down to a sprint and a photo finish

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TOKYO (AP) — They ran for more than two hours and needed a photo finish to determine the winner.

Alphonce Simbu edged out Amanal Petros in the men's marathon at world championships Monday in a 26.2-mile (42.195-kilometer) race through the streets of Tokyo that came down to a sprint through the homestretch of the track at Japan National Stadium.

“I have never seen something like this in a marathon,” Petros said. “It's like the 100 meters.”

Closer, in fact.

The difference in the men’s marathon was 0.03.

The differences in the men's and women's 100-meter races Sunday night: .15 and .05 seconds.

It marked the second straight day a marathon was decided with an all-out sprint to the line. The day before, Peres Jepchirchir won the women's race by 0.2 seconds.

Simbu's win outdid that. It was the closest marathon in world championships history. Both men were officially clocked at 2 hours, 9 minutes, 48 seconds, with the photo showing Simbu lunging across the line a fraction sooner.

“It was just try, try, try, and I finished" barely ahead, Simbu said. “It is amazing to me. I made history today.”

Simbu gave Tanzania its first Olympic or world championship gold in any event.

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games