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 wa