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≡ WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS ≡
The men’s marathon started at the World Athletics Championships in warm, sticky conditions on a holiday Monday morning on Respect for the Aged Day in Tokyo (JPN), with 80 F temperatures and 73% humidity, starting in sunshine but quickly under cloudy skies, and with lots of spectators cheering at the street sides.
● Men/Marathon: With the difficult conditions, a large pack rolled through 10 km with Kenyan Vincent Ngetich leading about 50 runners in a modest 30:48. No early breakaways today.
Clayton Young of the U.S., the Paris ninth-placer, fell after being tripped from behind at about 14 km, but was up quickly and continued.
By 20 km, the race began to string out a little, with Sweden’s Suldan Hassan in front at 1:01:54, and 34 in contact. The half was passed in 1:05:19.
The attrition was real, with Isaac Mpofu (ZIM) – 10th at the 2022 Worlds – leading at 1:17:11 at 25 km and 28 in contact. A couple more dropped off by 27 km, with traffic jams for towels and water at every aid station.
At 30 km, Ethiopia’s 2025 Tokyo Marathon runner-up Deresa Geleta was in front at 1:32:27, steady at 2:10+ pace, with 23 in contact. Defending champ Victor Kiplangat (UGA) was at the front and turning up the pace just a bit, with 15 in the lead pack – including Young – at 33 km.
By 35 km, Geleta stopped and all three Ethiopians did not finish. The lead group was slimming down to 12 and by 38 km, the incline was stretching the pack out and Kiplangat fell back and out of contention.
Suddenly, Uganda’s Abel Chelangat – in his fifth marathon – was the leader at 40 km and the small hill spread the leaders out and five were in front; Young dropped off the back. As the course moved downhill, six were in the lead pack with just 2 km remaining.
Chelangat led Illiass Aouani (ITA), German Amanal Petros, Israel’s Haimro Alame and Alphonce Felix Simbu (TAN) at 41 km, and the medalists were coming from that group. The pace increased, Simbu had the lead on Aouani and Petros with Chelangat and Alame were dropped.
Into the stadium, Petros had the lead on Simbu and Aouani onto the track! Petros and Simbu were 1-2, with Aouani dropped, and Petros had the lead with 80 m left and was seemingly the winner-to-be – he looked back twice – but Simbu sprinted hard to the line and won in 2:09:48, with Petros given the same time! Aouani got the bronze at 2:09:53, then Alame in fourth (2:10:03) and Chelangat fifth (2:10:11).
Simbu, 33, won a Worlds bronze way back in 2017 and was 5th-7th-17th at the Olympic marathons in 2016-21-24. He has run 2:04:38 and was second in Boston this year. How about this: it was only his second win in 25 career marathons and first since 2017!
Petros (2:04:58 best) didn’t finish in Paris last year and now has the silver medal; Aouani was the 2025 European champion in the marathon and has a best of 2:06:06. Not the fastest, not the big names, but they were the Worlds medalists in 2025, with the race finishing at 81 F and 70% humidity.
Young was ninth in 2:10:43; teammate Reed Fischer was 28th (2:15:17) and C.J. Albertson was 40th in 2:19:25.
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There were four events in the stadium for qualifying:
● Men/Hammer: In the first qualifying group, automatic qualifiers came right away for Hungary’s Paris silver medalist Bence Halasz (78.42 m/257-3) and 2024 bronzer Mykhaylo Kokhan (UKR: 77.33 m/253-8). Norway’s Elvind Henriksen joined in round two at 77.70 m (254-11).
Trey Knight, the U.S. nationals runner-up, got out to 76.40 m (250-8) in round three to move up to fourth in the group and he advanced as 10th overall.
In the second group, defending champion Ethan Katzberg (CAN) blasted 81.85 m (268-6) on his first throw and German Merlin Hummel (78.54 m/257-8) and Rudy Winkler of the U.S. (77.46 m/254-1) qualified on one try as well.
Five-time Worlds winner Pawel Fajdak (POL) jumped the auto-qualifiers at 78.78 m (258-5) in round two, as did Thomas Mardal (NOR: 77.34 m/253-9) and Armin Szabados (HUN: 77.20 m/253-3).
Daniel Haugh of the U.S. managed 74.87 m (245-7), was 17th and did not advance.
● Women/Steeple: Heat one has 2022 World Champion Norah Jeruto (KAZ) and Paris 2024 Olympic bronzer Faith Cherotich (KEN), part of a lead pack of eight with four laps to go. They stayed together to the bell, with Cherotich in front, but it came down to six chasing five qualifying spots on the back straight.
Britain’s Elise Thorner took the lead into the water jump, but Cherotich grabbed the lead into the straight and Jeruto also passed Thorner after the final barrier and they finished 1-2-3 in 9:13.95, 9:14.25 and a lifetime best for 9:14.37 for Thorner. Lexy Halladay of the U.S. held on to fifth in 9:15.06 and advanced to the final.
Defending champion and Olympic winner Winfred Yavi (BRN) headlined the second heat, with American Angelina Napoleon leading in the early going, then giving way to Ethiopian Paris fifth-placer Sembo Almayew. Yavi came to the front at 2,000 m and led Almayew with two laps left.
Yavi took the bell, and was rolling away from the field and jogged to the finish, just ahead of the suddenly-sprinting Marwa Bouzayani (TUN), 9:15.63 to 9:15.68. Almayew was third (9:15.84) and Napoleon qualified for the final in fifth at 9:18.03.
Heat three had Tokyo Olympic champ Peruth Chemutai (UGA) and NCAA record holder Doris Lemngole of Kenya. Chemutai – who hurdles the water jumps – led Paris finalist Lomi Muleta (ETH) and Lemngole with four laps to go, and 10 m up on the rest of the field.
Chemutai was way out in front with two laps left and took the bell up 15 m on Lemngole, who moved up coming to the last water jump, but Chemutai won easily in 9:07.68, with Lemngole at 9:08.97 and Muleta at 9:12.20. American Kaylee Mitchell was fifth in 9:15.52 and advanced (all three Americans finished fifth!).
● Women/400 m hurdles: Defending champ and heavy favorite Femke Bol (NED) went in lane one, was in the lead from the first hurdle and won easily in 53.75. Ayomide Folorunso (ITA) was well back in second at 54.67.
Next, Olympic silver winner Anna Cockrell of the U.S. and Jamaica’s Andrenette Knight were even for seven hurdles, but Cockrell edged ahead and won in 53.63 to 53.74. Paris fourth-placer Jasmine Jones (USA) ran easily in heat three and won in 53.18, equaling his seasonal best, way ahead of Emma Zapletalova (SVK: 54.15).
Rio 2016 Olympic champ Dalilah Muhammad of the U.S. was in lane four in heat four, and was out well, striding ahead of Shiann Salmon (JAM) to win, 53.80 to 54.21, a seasonal best. Canada’s Savannah Sutherland, the NCAA champ, was in heat five, but was never in contention, as China’s Jiadie Mo led through halfway. Italy’s Alice Muraro came hard on the final straight and won in 54.36, ahead of Emily Newnham (GBR: 54.59) and Mo third (54.63 lifetime best). Sutherland had no push on the straight and was fifth in 55.68 and did not advance!
● Women/Vault: All four Americans – defending champ Katie Moon, Sandi Morris and Hana and Amanda Moll – cleared 4.60 m (15-1). There were 14 who cleared and all were taken to the final.
Britain’s Molly Caudery, the 2024 World Indoor winner and a serious medal contender, suffered an injury in warm-ups and had to withdraw.
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The Monday evening schedule in Tokyo has the men’s steeple, men’s vault, women’s 100 m hurdles and hammer finals. Qualifying will be held in the men’s 1,500 m, 110 m hurdles, 400 m hurdles and long jump.
Prize money for the Worlds is $70,000-35,000-22,000-16,000-11,000-7,000-6,000-5,000 for individual events and $80,000-40,000-20,000-16,000-12,000-8,000-6,000-4,000 for relays.
The meet is being shown by NBC in the U.S., primarily on Peacock, but also on CNBC and USA Network.
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