They ran for more than two hours and needed a photo finish to determine the winner.

Alphonce Simbu has edged out Amanal Petros in the men's marathon at the world championships on Monday, in a 42km race through the streets of Tokyo that came down to a sprint through the home stretch 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 100m races on Sunday night: 0.15 and 0.05 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

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