Key events
Men’s marathon: As we await today’s action, let’s run through what took place in the morning session/overnight. Alphonce Felix Simbu snatched gold in the first photo-finish at a major championship marathon edging out Germany’s Amanal Petros in a dramatic race to the line to give Tanzania its maiden world title.
The photo-finish showed the 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 the day before.
Simbu and Petros were given the same time of two hours, nine minutes and 48 seconds, the German taking the silver despite heading the field as the leaders entered Tokyo’s National Stadium. Italy’s 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.”
The finish was closer than at the 2001 championships in Edmonton, when Ethiopia’s Gezahegne Abera beat Kenya’s Simon Biwott by a single second. South Africa’s Josia Thugwane won the closest Olympic men’s marathon by three seconds against South Korea’s 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.
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 cluster 90 minutes in. The pack then gradually thinned out as some faded in the morning heat, leaving Simbu, Petros and Aouani clear of the field coming into the stadium. Petros was in the lead to take take the title until Simbu found a late kick and ran him down at the line.
“It’s like the 100 metres,” said Petros. “Coming into the finish I was thinking about winning so a bit of me is feeling very sad. But I have to accept it. As an athlete you have to learn for tomorrow, train hard, keep going and be thankful for the silver.”
Preamble
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the world championships in Tokyo where a gripping day three awaits us.
Four more gold medals are to be handed out in today’s evening session: men’s pole vault, women’s hammer throw, men’s 3000m steeplechase and women’s 100m hurdles.
And as always, if you have any predictions, queries or thoughts on any of the events, send me an email.
Today’s schedule
It is 6.30pm JST 10.30 am in Tokyo at the moment and here is what is scheduled for the evening session:
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11.35am BST / 7.35pm JST – men’s 400m hurdles – heats
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11.40am BST / 7.40pm JST – men’s long jump – qualification
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11:49am BST / 7.49pm JST – men’s pole vault – final
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12.23pm BST / 8.23pm JST – men’s 110m hurdles – heats
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1pm BST / 9pm JST – women’s hammer throw – final
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1.06pm BST/ 9.06pm JST – women’s 100m hurdles – semi-final
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1.30pm BST / 9.30pm JST – men’s 1500m – semi-final
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1.55pm BST / 9.55pm JST – men’s 3000m steeplechase – final
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2.20pm BST / 10.20pm JST – women’s 100m hurdles – final
