The men's marathon at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Beijing National Stadium on 22 August.Start list
The name Gebrselassie is familiar in running circles, but this race was won by Haile's sound alike Ghirmay Ghebreslassie from a different country, neighboring Eritrea. Not only was he the youngest winner of a World Championship marathon, he was the first gold medalist for his country ever.
The early leader was Ser-Od Bat-Ochir, then Daniele Meucci and Ruggero Pertile getting camera time to the half way mark while the favorites including defending champion Stephen Kiprotich stayed slightly off the pace. Ghebreslassie marked the more experienced runners. Tsepo Ramonene made a breakaway at 25 km opening up a 30-second lead. As he watched two Kenyans drop out and other favorites struggle, Ghebreslassie decided to set loose at 34 km. Over the next couple of kilometers, he made up the gap and passed Ramonene with authority. But a couple of kilometers later Yemane Tsegay passed Ghebreslassie. Tsegay's lead only lasted two minutes until Ghebreslassie took the lead for good. Over the final kilometers, he extended his lead to 40 seconds. Running relaxed and fast like an exuberant teenager, he was handed an Eritrean flag as he entered the stadium. He held his flag but kept on running past the finish line until officials were able to tell him he was done. “I’ve never finished in a stadium before.” Behind him, in comparison, Tsegay, Solomon Mutai and the other runners finished looking as if they had just finished a marathon.
Records Prior to the competition, the records were as follows:
World record2:02:57Berlin, Germany28 September 2014Championship record2:06:54Berlin, Germany22 August 2009World Leading2:04:42London, Great Britain26 April 2015African Record2:02:57Berlin, Germany28 September 2014Asian Record2:06:16Chicago, United States13 October 2002North, Central American and Caribbean record2:05:38London, Great Britain14 April 2002South American Record2:06:05Berlin, Germany20 September 1998European Record2:06:36Paris, France6 April 2003Oceanian record2:07:51Boston, United States21 April 1986
Qualification standards Time 2:18:00
Schedule Date Time Round22 August 2015 07:35 Final
Results The race was started at 07:35.Final results
KEY:NRNational recordPBPersonal bestSBSeasonal best
Rank Name Nationality Time Notes Ghirmay Ghebreslassie 2:12:27 Yemane Tsegay 2:13:07 Solomon Mutai 2:13:29 Ruggero Pertile 2:14:22 Shumi Dechasa 2:14:35 Stephen Kiprotich 2:14:42 Lelisa Desisa 2:14:53 Daniele Meucci 2:14:53 Amanuel Mesel 2:15:06 10 Jackson Kiprop 2:15:15 11 Pak Chol 2:15:44 12 Alphonce Felix Simbu 2:16:58 13 Javier Guerra 2:17:00 14 Tsepo Mathibelle 2:17:17 15 Berhanu Lemi 2:17:37 16 Abdelhadi El Hachimi 2:17:41 17 Aleksey Reunkov 2:18:12 18 Solonei da Silva 2:19:20 19 Tadesse Abraham 2:19:25 20 Roman Fosti 2:20:35 21 Masakazu Fujiwara 2:21:06 22 Mark Korir 2:21:20 23 Cuthbert Nyasango 2:22:15 24 Xu Wang 2:23:08 25 Ian Burrell 2:23:17 26 Pierre-Célestin Nihorimbere 2:23:29 27 Ezekiel Jafary 2:23:43 28 Scott Smith 2:23:53 29 Anuradha Cooray 2:25:04 30 Cephas Pasipamiri 2:25:05 31 Roman Prodius 2:26:46 32 Edwin Kipchirchir Kemboi 2:28:06 33 Ho Chin-ping 2:28:14 34 Guan Siyang 2:30:17 35 Henri Manninen 2:30:22 36 David Nilsson 2:31:24 37 Gilbert Mutandiro 2:31:35 38 Bat-Ochiryn Ser-Od 2:32:09 39 Noh Si-hwan 2:32:35 40 Kazuhiro Maeda 2:32:49 41 Desmond Mokgobu 2:34:11 42 Fabiano Joseph Naasi 2:35:27 Wissem Hosni Bekir Karayel Abraham Kiplimo Edmilson Santana Ivan Babaryka Oleksandr Babarynka Jeffrey Eggleston Sibusiso Nzima Gilberto Lopes Muhan Hasi Richer Pérez Beraki Beyene Carles Castillejo Mihail Krassilov Yu Seung-yeop Dennis Kipruto Kimetto Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich Mohammad Jafar Moradi Aadam Ismaeel Khamis Hasan Mahboob Adil Annani Rachid Kisri Abel Villanueva Marius Ionescu Thabiso Benedict Moeng Guor Marial
References