2015 World Championships in Athletics – Men's marathon


The men's marathon at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Beijing National Stadium on 22 August.
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 2014
Championship record2:06:54Berlin, Germany22 August 2009
World Leading2:04:42London, Great Britain26 April 2015
African Record2:02:57Berlin, Germany28 September 2014
Asian Record2:06:16Chicago, United States13 October 2002
North, Central American and Caribbean record2:05:38London, Great Britain14 April 2002
South American Record2:06:05Berlin, Germany20 September 1998
European Record2:06:36Paris, France6 April 2003
Oceanian record2:07:51Boston, United States21 April 1986

Qualification standards

Schedule

Results

The race was started at 07:35.
KEY:NRNational recordPBPersonal bestSBSeasonal best

RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
Ghirmay Ghebreslassie2:12:27
Yemane Tsegay2:13:07
Solomon Mutai2:13:29
Ruggero Pertile2:14:22
Shumi Dechasa2:14:35
Stephen Kiprotich2:14:42
Lelisa Desisa2:14:53
Daniele Meucci2:14:53
Amanuel Mesel2:15:06
10Jackson Kiprop2:15:15
11Pak Chol2:15:44
12Alphonce Felix Simbu2:16:58
13Javier Guerra2:17:00
14Tsepo Mathibelle2:17:17
15Berhanu Lemi2:17:37
16Abdelhadi El Hachimi2:17:41
17Aleksey Reunkov2:18:12
18Solonei da Silva2:19:20
19Tadesse Abraham2:19:25
20Roman Fosti2:20:35
21Masakazu Fujiwara2:21:06
22Mark Korir2:21:20
23Cuthbert Nyasango2:22:15
24Xu Wang2:23:08
25Ian Burrell2:23:17
26Pierre-Célestin Nihorimbere2:23:29
27Ezekiel Jafary2:23:43
28Scott Smith2:23:53
29Anuradha Cooray2:25:04
30Cephas Pasipamiri2:25:05
31Roman Prodius2:26:46
32Edwin Kipchirchir Kemboi2:28:06
33Ho Chin-ping2:28:14
34Guan Siyang2:30:17
35Henri Manninen2:30:22
36David Nilsson2:31:24
37Gilbert Mutandiro2:31:35
38Bat-Ochiryn Ser-Od2:32:09
39Noh Si-hwan2:32:35
40Kazuhiro Maeda2:32:49
41Desmond Mokgobu2:34:11
42Fabiano Joseph Naasi2:35:27
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