Alphonce Felix Simbu made history by becoming the first Tanzanian to win a global event gold medal at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.Published On 15 Sep 202515 Sep 2025Click here to share on social mediashare2ShareAlphonce Felix Simbu has snatched gold in the first photo finish at a major championship marathon, edging out German Amanal Petros in a dramatic race to the line to give Tanzania its maiden world title.The photo finish showed 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 Monday.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listSimbu and Petros were given the same time of two hours, nine minutes and 48 seconds (2:09:48), the German taking the silver despite heading the field as the leaders entered Tokyo’s National Stadium. Italian Iliass Aouani took the bronze in 2:09:53.“When we entered the stadium, I was not sure if I would win,” the 33-year-old Simbu said. “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 championships.” Simbu reacts after winning Tanzania’s first-ever gold at the World Athletics Championships [Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP]Smallest winning margin in a global marathon raceThe 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 a 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. Advertisement Simbu struck back for East African distance running the morning after Frenchman Jimmy Gressier became the first man born outside the region to win the 10,000m title for more than 40 years.The early morning event opened with another incident more reminiscent of sprints than endurance races when Vincent Kipkemoi Ngetich of Kenya jumped the gun, forcing a restart.More shocks followed as two of the fastest runners in the field, Ethiopia’s Tadese Takele and Deresa Geleta, who took gold and silver at the Tokyo city marathon in March, dropped off with less than 10km to go.The race was wide open for much of the distance, with a couple of dozen runners in the leading cl …
