The men's marathon at the 2025 World Athletics Championships was held at the National Stadium in Tokyo on 15 September 2025. This edition had the smallest margin of victory in World Championships marathon history, at only 0.03 seconds.
Summary Ethiopians Tadese Takele and Deresa Geleta, who had placed first and second, respectively, at the Tokyo Marathon in March, were among 22 athletes who dropped out of the race after hot temperatures made conditions difficult. Takele's time of 2:03:23 had placed him as the fastest entrant at the start.
With less than three kilometers remaining, Uganda's Abel Chelangat led four other athletes in a break from the rest of the field; however, Chelangat and Israel's Haimro Alame were dropped just before the stadium. Trailed closely by Alphonce Felix Simbu and Illiass Aouani, Amanal Petros held the lead as the podium trio ran through the tunnel and onto the track. Petros surged down the back stretch and appeared to drop his competitors, but just 30 meters from the finish line, Simbu launched a kick to reach the German. After a review of the photo-finish, Simbu was given the win over Petros by just 0.03 seconds, the smallest margin in World Championship history. Both were timed at 2:09:48, and Aouani took bronze in 2:09:53. Simbu's win gave Tanzania its first-ever global gold medal in athletics.
Records Before the competition records were as follows:
RecordAthlete & LocationDate World record 2:00:35 Chicago, United States 8 October 2023 Championship record 2:05:36 Eugene, United States 17 July 2022 World Leading 2:02:27 London, United Kingdom 27 April 2025 African Record 2:00:35 Chicago, United States 8 October 2023 Asian Record 2:04:43 Valencia, Spain 2 December 2018 European Record 2:03:36 Rotterdam, Netherlands 24 October 2021 North, Central American and Caribbean record 2:05:36 Tokyo, Japan 5 March 2023 Oceanian record 2:06:22 Valencia, Spain 1 December 2024 South American Record 2:04:51 Seoul, South Korea 17 April 2022
Qualification Standard The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 2:06:30.
Schedule The event schedule, in local time (UTC+9), was as follows:
Date Time Round 15 September 07:30 Final
Results The race was started on 15 September at 7:30. Place Athlete Nation Time Notes Alphonce Simbu 2:09:48 Amanal Petros 2:09:48 Iliass Aouani 2:09:53 4 Haimro Alame 2:10:03 5 Abel Chelangat 2:10:11 6 Yohanes Chiappinelli 2:10:15 7 Gashau Ayale 2:10:27 8 Samsom Amare 2:10:34 9 Clayton Young 2:10:43 10 Isaac Mpofu 2:10:46 11 Ryota Kondo 2:10:53 12 Cameron Levins 2:11:07 13 Richard Ringer 2:11:14 14 Suldan Hassan 2:11:18 15 Victor Kiplangat 2:11:33 16 Kennedy Kimutai 2:11:45 17 Koen Naert 2:12:52 18 Abderrazak Charik 2:13:06 19 Kaan Kigen Özbilen 2:13:27 20 Mohamed Reda El Aaraby 2:13:29 21 Yaseen Abdalla 2:13:32 22 Vincent Kipkemoi 2:13:38 23 Naoki Koyama 2:13:42 24 Peter Lynch 2:14:12 25 Ebba Tulu Chala 2:14:40 26 He Jie 2:14:52 27 Oqbe Kibrom Ruesom 2:15:01 28 Reed Fischer 2:15:17 29 Jacob Simonsen 2:15:31 30 Yang Shaohui 2:15:35 31 Wu Xiangdong 2:16:01 32 Cristhian Zamora 2:16:09 33 Elroy Gelant 2:16:32 34 2:16:58 35 Justin Kent 2:17:12 36 Ben Preisner 2:17:32 37 2:18:04 38 Johnatas de Oliveira 2:18:22 39 Kiruhura Emmanuel Ntagunga 2:19:11 40 CJ Albertson 2:19:25 41 2:19:47 42 2:19:50 43 2:19:57 44 Tim Vincent 2:20:12 45 Paulo Roberto Paula 2:20:18 46 Ablelom Maryo 2:20:46 47 Mohammed Benyettou 2:20:51 48 2:20:56 49 Sondre Nordstad Moen 2:21:22 50 Mateusz Kaczor 2:21:51 51 Tiidrek Nurme 2:21:58 52 Aaron Gruen 2:22:07 53 2:22:47 54 Hugo Catrileo 2:23:29 55 İlham Tanui Özbilen 2:23:35 56 Ferdinand Cereceda 2:23:46 57 Liam Boudin 2:24:39 58 Dario Ivanovski 2:26:31 59 Samuel Freire 2:27:26 60 Segundo Jami 2:28:07 61 Tendai Zimuto 2:28:10 62 Nicolás Cuestas 2:28:37 63 Ederson Pereira 2:28:40 64 2:29:59 65 Bat-Ochiryn Ser-Od 2:30:09 66 Maxim Răileanu 2:32:15 Sezgin Ataç Therence Bizoza Soufiyan Bouqantar Emile Cairess Rene Champi Yemaneberhan Crippa Tesfaye Deriba Othmane El Goumri Deresa Geleta Hiko Tonosa Haso Hillary Kipkoech Stephen Kissa Zerei Kbrom Mezngi Solomon Mutai Yves Nimubona Juan Pacheco Park Min-ho Daniel Nghidinwa Paulus Tadese Takele Maru Teferi Tseveenravdangiin Byambajav Abdi Waiss Mouhyadin Ibrahim Hassan Félicien Muhitira
References