Simbu snatches world marathon gold from Petros in historic photo finish
Tanzania’s Alphonce Simbu claims win by 0.03secs
Sprint ended up in tighter result than 100m finals
One of the most dramatic finales in marathon history ended with one athlete at these Tokyo World 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.