TOKYO (AP) — They ran for more than two hours and needed a photo finish to determine the winner.
Alphonce Simbu of Tanzania edged out Amanal Petros in a wild men's marathon at world championships Monday.
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Tanzania's Alphonce Felix Simbu, left, wins the gold in the men's marathon ahead of Germany's Amanal Petros who falls at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Tanzania's Alphonce Felix Simbu, left, wins the gold in the men's marathon ahead of Germany's Amanal Petros who falls at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Tanzania's Alphonce Felix Simbu, left, crosses the finish line ahead of Germany's Amanal Petros to win the men's marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Tanzania's Alphonce Felix Simbu poses after winning the gold medal in the men's marathon ahead of Germany's Amanal Petros at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Tanzania's Alphonce Felix Simbu, bottom, crosses the finish line ahead of Germany's Amanal Petros to win the men's marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Tanzania's Alphonce Felix Simbu, bottom, crosses the finish line ahead of Germany's Amanal Petros to win the men's marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
It was a 26.2-mile (42.195-kilometer) race through the streets of Tokyo that began with a false start and ended with a sprint down the homestretch of the track — but only after Simbu nearly missed the turn into the stadium.
“I have never seen something like this in a marathon,” said Petros, after getting nudged out despite lunging and tumbling over the finish line. “It's like the 100 meters.”
Closer, in fact.
The difference in the men’s marathon was 0.03 seconds.
The differences in the men's and women's 100-meter races Sunday night: .05 and .15 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 .2 seconds.
This men's race included a jump of the gun by Vincent Ngetich of Kenya that forced race officials to call the runners back after about 100 meters. Nobody gets eliminated for a false start in a distance race.
Simbu said he was confused as he rounded the last curve on the way into the stadium to finish the race.
“I saw some people pointing one way, and the motorcycles going the other,” he said.
It was Petros and third-place finisher Iliass Aouani who pointed Simbu in the right direction, but the slip-up cost him the lead.
Once he got back on track, “my mind was saying, you've got to do whatever it takes to get into the stadium and finish this up.”
This marked the closest marathon in world championships history. Both men were officially clocked at 2 hours, 9 minutes, 48 seconds, with the photo showing Simbu crossing the line a fraction sooner before Petros tumbled to the deck.
“It was just try, try, try, and I finished" barely ahead, Simbu said. “It is amazing to me. I made history today.”
Simbu gave Tanzania its first Olympic or world championship gold in any event.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
Tanzania's Alphonce Felix Simbu, left, wins the gold in the men's marathon ahead of Germany's Amanal Petros who falls at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Tanzania's Alphonce Felix Simbu, left, wins the gold in the men's marathon ahead of Germany's Amanal Petros who falls at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Tanzania's Alphonce Felix Simbu, left, crosses the finish line ahead of Germany's Amanal Petros to win the men's marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Tanzania's Alphonce Felix Simbu poses after winning the gold medal in the men's marathon ahead of Germany's Amanal Petros at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Tanzania's Alphonce Felix Simbu, bottom, crosses the finish line ahead of Germany's Amanal Petros to win the men's marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Tanzania's Alphonce Felix Simbu, bottom, crosses the finish line ahead of Germany's Amanal Petros to win the men's marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was at the White House on Thursday discussing her country's future with President Donald Trump even after he publicly dismissed her credibility to take over after an audacious U.S. military raid captured then-President Nicolás Maduro.
Trump has raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in Venezuela. His administration has signaled its willingness to work with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president and, along with others in the deposed leader’s inner circle, remains in charge of day-to-day governmental operations.
In endorsing Rodríguez so far, Trump has sidelined Machado, who has long been a face of resistance in Venezuela and sought to cultivate relationships with Trump and key administration voices like Secretary of State Marco Rubio among the American right wing in a gamble to ally herself with the U.S. government.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump was expecting a positive discussion during the lunchtime meeting and called Machado “a remarkable and brave voice” for the people of Venezuela.
The White House said Machado sought the face-to-face meeting without setting expectations for what would occur. Her party is widely believed to have won 2024 elections rejected by Maduro. Machado previously offered to share with Trump the Nobel Peace Prize she won last year, an honor he has coveted.
Leavitt said Trump is committed to seeing Venezuela hold elections “one day,” but wouldn’t say when that might happen.
Machado plans to have a meeting at the Senate later Thursday. Trump has called her “a nice woman” while indicating they might not touch on major issues in their talks Thursday.
Her Washington swing began after U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says had ties to Venezuela. It is part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil after U.S. forces seized Maduro and his wife at a heavily guarded compound in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges.
The White House says Venezuela has been fully cooperating with the Trump administration since Maduro’s ouster.
Rodríguez, the acting president, herself has adopted a less strident position toward Trump and his “America First” policies toward the Western Hemisphere, saying she plans to continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro — a move thought to have been made at the behest of the Trump administration. Venezuela released several Americans this week.
Trump, a Republican, said Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro was ousted.
“We had a call, a long call. We discussed a lot of things,” Trump said during an Oval Office bill signing. “And I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela.”
Even before indicating the willingness to work with Venezuela's interim government, Trump was quick to snub Machado. Just hours after Maduro's capture, Trump said of Machado that “it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”
Machado has steered a careful course to avoid offending Trump, notably after winning last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, which Trump wanted to win himself. She has since thanked Trump. Her offer to share the peace prize with him was rejected by the Nobel Institute.
Machado’s whereabouts have been largely unknown since she went into hiding early last year after being briefly detained in Caracas. She briefly reappeared in Oslo, Norway, in December after her daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.
The industrial engineer and daughter of a steel magnate began challenging the ruling party in 2004, when the nongovernmental organization she co-founded, Súmate, promoted a referendum to recall then-President Hugo Chávez. The initiative failed, and Machado and other Súmate executives were charged with conspiracy.
A year later, she drew the anger of Chávez and his allies again for traveling to Washington to meet President George W. Bush. A photo showing her shaking hands with Bush in the Oval Office lives in the collective memory. Chávez considered Bush an adversary.
Almost two decades later, she marshaled millions of Venezuelans to reject Chávez’s successor, Maduro, for another term in the 2024 election. But ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared him the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. Ensuing anti-government protests ended in a brutal crackdown by state security forces.
Garcia Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela, and Janetsky from Mexico City. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
FILE - U.S. President George Bush, right, meets with Maria Corina Machado, executive director of Sumate, a non-governmental organization that defends Venezuelan citizens' political rights, in the Oval Office of the White House, Washington, May 31, 2005. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures to supporters during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro the day before his inauguration for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)
