Men’s World Championships marathon comes down to a photo finish between Alphonce Simbu and Amanal Petros

© Copyright – 2025 – Athletics Illustrated

“Haraka haraka haina baraka”
(or haste haste has no blessing, advising patience)

— Tanzanian proverb.

The men’s marathon came down to a sprint between two men who finished being credited with the same time. The photo finish image determined that Alphonce Felix Simbu of Tanzania won in the time of 2:09:48. As he caught Amanal Petros of Germany at the line, Petros ended up tripping and rolling onto the track, just as the two hit the finish banner.

Taking third place was Illiass Aouani of Italy, just five seconds back at 2:09:53.

The athletes battled a high temperature of 30°C (86°F) and 90 per cent humidity.

FIRST EVER GOLD FOR TANZANIA 🏆

Alphonce Simbu grabs his country's first ever title at the #WorldAthleticsChamps after a surprise surge in the final metres of the marathon 🤩

Both him and 🇩🇪's Amanal Petros clock 2:09.48 for 1st and 2nd with 🇮🇹's Iliass Aouani coming in 3rd 🙌 pic.twitter.com/1I5qDoffY4

— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) September 15, 2025

Simbu is the first Tanzanian athlete to win a gold medal at the World Athletics Championships. Simbu owns a personal best time of 2:04:38 from the 2024 Valencia Marathon. Surprisingly, it is not the national record, which is held by Gabriel Geay at 2:03:00 from the 2022 Valencia Marathon.

Simbu won bronze during the 2017 London World Athletics Championships. The 33-year-old also finished fifth and seventh at the Rio and Tokyo Olympic Games, respectively.

Petros is a 30-year-old runner originally from Eritrea. The 29-year-old Aouani is originally from Morocco.

A large pack of more than 20 athletes stayed together well past the halfway point. The typical late-race attrition did not begin to take shape until close to the 26-kilometre point. There were five very tightly grouped until just over 40km, where two more dropped off. Abel Chelangat of Uganda, who spent much of the race up front, and Haimro Amane of Israel were the victims of the final of a series of hills leading to the stadium.

The top Japanese runner was Ryota Kondo, who finished in eighth in a time of 2:10:53. Kondo owns a best of 2:05:39 from Osaka in February this year.

American Clayton Young hung on for ninth spot in 2:10:43. Cameron Levins, the North American record holder, who held onto the lead pack to close to 28km with Young, began to fade a little over the series of late hills. But, he worked hard to maintain pace and was rewarded wit ha solid 12th placing in 2:11:07.

His best World Championships performance was in 2022 at the Eugene edition. Levins clocked 2:07:09 and finished in fourth position. Sunday’s run for Levins was similar to that of fellow Canadian Art Boileau. Boileau, at the inaugural World Championships in Helsinki in 1983, finished 11th in 2:11:30.

Shoestrings…

It has been since the 2007 Osaka World Athletics Championships, the last time that an Ethiopian man did not medal at a World Championships in the marathon. During the subsequent eight World Championships, the East African nation has collected 11 medals, two of which are gold.

Kenya, another dominant force, had two of three athletes finish, but they were not a factor. Tokyo is the third consecutive World Championships where the previously dominant nation has not medalled. Kenya has nine men’s marathon medals since 1983.

The only time that a Germany has won a World Championships medal in the men’s marathon was a bronze in 1983 by Waldemar Cierpinski of East Germany. The only German athlete (West) was Katrin Dörre, who took a bronze in the women’s race in 1991 in Tokyo.

The last time an Italian male earned a medal was in 2003 and 2001. It was back-to-back bronzes by Stefano Baldini. In 1999, in Seville, Vincenzo Modica earned a silver. Gelindo Bordin picked up a bronze in 1987 in Rome.

American Clayton Young tripped around mid-way through the race. He hit the road quickly and got up to continue running. When the camera was on him, he shrugged to indicate he was fine. There was a little blood on his leg.

Defending champion from Budapest, Victor Kiplangat, appeared to suffer severe abdominal cramping and had to drop out.

Results

POS	BIB	ATHLETE	COUNTRY	MARK
1	2926	Alphonce Felix SIMBU	TAN	2:09:48 SB
2	2423	Amanal PETROS	GER	2:09:48
3	2503	Iliass AOUANI	ITA	2:09:53
4	2497	Haimro ALAME	ISR	2:10:03
5	2946	Abel CHELANGAT	UGA	2:10:11
6	2510	Yohanes CHIAPPINELLI	ITA	2:10:15 SB
7	2498	Gashau AYALE	ISR	2:10:27
8	2264	Samsom AMARE	ERI	2:10:34
9	3051	Clayton YOUNG	USA	2:10:43 SB
10	3067	Isaac MPOFU	ZIM	2:10:46 SB
11	2598	Ryota KONDO	JPN	2:10:53
12	2161	Cameron LEVINS	CAN	2:11:07 SB
13	2426	Richard RINGER	GER	2:11:14
14	2916	Suldan HASSAN	SWE	2:11:18
15	2952	Victor KIPLANGAT	UGA	2:11:33 SB
16	2635	Kennedy KIMUTAI	KEN	2:11:45
17	2088	Koen NAERT	BEL	2:12:52
18	2003	Abderrazak CHARIK	ALG	2:13:06 SB
19	2941	Kaan Kigen ÖZBILEN	TUR	2:13:27
20	2689	Mohamed Reda EL AARABY	MAR	2:13:29
21	2897	Yaseen ABDALLA	SUD	2:13:32 SB
22	2654	Vincent Kipkemoi NGETICH	KEN	2:13:38
23	2599	Naoki KOYAMA	JPN	2:13:42
24	2489	Peter LYNCH	IRL	2:14:12
25	2913	Ebba Tulu CHALA	SWE	2:14:40
26	2184	Jie HE	CHN	2:14:52
27	2267	Oqbe Kibrom RUESOM	ERI	2:15:01
28	2991	Reed FISCHER	USA	2:15:17 SB
29	2253	Jacob Sommer SIMONSEN	DEN	2:15:31 SB
30	2205	Shaohui YANG	CHN	2:15:35
31	2200	Xiangdong WU	CHN	2:16:01
32	2968	Cristhian ZAMORA	URU	2:16:09 SB
33	2855	Elroy GELANT	RSA	2:16:32
34	2624	Yuya YOSHIDA	JPN	2:16:58 SB
35	2159	Justin KENT	CAN	2:17:12
36	2168	Ben PREISNER	CAN	2:17:32
37	3054	Shokhrukh DAVLATOV	UZB	2:18:04 SB
38	2119	Johnatas DE OLIVEIRA	BRA	2:18:22
39	2018	Kiruhura Emmanuel NTAGUNGA	ART	2:19:11
40	2969	CJ ALBERTSON	USA	2:19:25
41	2017	Omar HASSAN	ART	2:19:47
42	2825	Rui PINTO	POR	2:19:50
43	2734	Tom HENDRIKSE	NED	2:19:57 SB
44	2057	Tim VINCENT	AUS	2:20:12 SB
45	2132	Paulo Roberto PAULA	BRA	2:20:18
46	2265	Ablelom MARYO	ERI	2:20:46
47	2001	Mohammed BENYETTOU	ALG	2:20:51 SB
48	2704	Marcelo LAGUERA	MEX	2:20:56
49	2765	Sondre Nordstad MOEN	NOR	2:21:22
50	2793	Mateusz KACZOR	POL	2:21:51 SB
51	2292	Tiidrek NURME	EST	2:21:58
52	2059	Aaron GRUEN	AUT	2:22:07
53	2925	Josephat Joshua GISEMO	TAN	2:22:47 SB
54	2173	Hugo CATRILEO	CHI	2:23:29
55	2940	Ilham Tanui ÖZBILEN	TUR	2:23:35
56	2782	Ferdinand CERECEDA	PER	2:23:46 SB
57	2026	Liam BOUDIN	AUS	2:24:39
58	2712	Dario IVANOVSKI	MKD	2:26:31
59	2222	Samuel FREIRE	CPV	2:27:26 SB
60	2260	Segundo JAMI	ECU	2:28:07
61	3068	Tendai ZIMUTO	ZIM	2:28:10
62	2965	Nicolás CUESTAS	URU	2:28:37
63	2138	Ederson VILELA PEREIRA	BRA	2:28:40
64	2291	Leonid LATSEPOV	EST	2:29:59
65	2709	Ser-Od BAT-OCHIR	MGL	2:30:09
66	2701	Maxim RĂILEANU	MDA	2:32:15
	2072	Therence BIZOZA	BDI	DNF
	2255	Abdi WAISS	DJI	DNF
	2297	Tesfaye DERIBA	ETH	DNF
	2300	Deresa GELETA	ETH	DNF
	2307	Tadese TAKELE	ETH	DNF
	2364	Emile CAIRESS	GBR	DNF
	2487	Hiko Tonosa HASO	IRL	DNF
	2500	Maru TEFERI	ISR	DNF
	2511	Yemaneberhan CRIPPA	ITA	DNF
	2636	Hillary KIPKOECH	KEN	DNF
	2667	Minho PARK	KOR	DNF
	2688	Soufiyan BOUQANTAR	MAR	DNF
	2692	Othmane EL GOUMRI	MAR	DNF
	2706	Juan PACHECO	MEX	DNF
	2710	Byambajav TSEVEENRAVDAN	MGL	DNF
	2718	Daniel Nghidinwa PAULUS	NAM	DNF
	2763	Zerei Kbrom MEZNGI	NOR	DNF
	2783	Rene CHAMPI	PER	DNF
	2882	Yves NIMUBONA	RWA	DNF
	2937	Sezgin ATAÇ	TUR	DNF
	2954	Stephen KISSA	UGA	DNF
	2955	Solomon MUTAI	UGA	DNF
	2254	Ibrahim HASSAN	DJI	DNS
	2881	Felicien MUHITIRA	RWA	DNS