Sensation success in the marathon at the athletics World Cup in Tokyo: Amanal Petros won silver early Monday morning after a furious performance over 42.195 kilometers of silver. It is only the second medal for a German marathon runner at a World Cup. Richard Ringer also convinced with 13th place.
Petros even had the World Cup title on the last meters of the race when he put the target sprint in front of Alphonce Felix Simbu from Tanzania. But the 30 -year -old runner from Hannover 96 felt his pursuer’s breath, looked around two or three times – and finally fell after 2:09:48 hours at the finish line next to the African – and came to second place. The decision was made only after the target photo was evaluated.
This was preceded by a true energy performance of Petros, which was at the top from the beginning of the race and had assumed all the speed of the competition. After all, the reward was sensational silver. The bronze medal went to Iliass aouani from Italy (2:09:53).
“I finally did it”
In the sports show interview, Petros, who came to Germany in 2012 as a 16-year-old refugee from East Africa in 2012, was not yet able to grasp his success and the dimension of what has just been done: “I am now dreaming right now. That was really a very, very long journey, finally I did it for four months at 2500 meters in Kenya, it was not an easy time for me. It was a huge challenge for me.
Petros, as a marathon medalist, joins Waldemar Cierpinski’s footsteps at a World Athletics Championships, who had brought bronze for the GDR in 1983 in Helsinki.
False start as a good omen
After a curious false start in the nation stadium, 87 marathon runners on the Japanese “Respect for the age” holiday with a delay of about a two-minute delay. And there, petros and wrestlers felt comfortable for a long time despite the difficult climatic conditions. They showed this particularly impressively after ten kilometers: Both confidently took the top of the field – even in front of all medal favorites from Africa – and passed the intermediate time in a leading position.
Petros cannot be shaken off
In the further course of the race, the two showed themselves wide awake and highly concentrated – and above all were quickly on the move. The 30-year-old Petros and the wrestling wrestler, which is six years older, ran together in the ever smaller top group, then wrestling had to be torn down.
But Petros kept with the other top runners. In a five -member group, we finally went back to the nation stadium for the last few meters of the race – and there it came to the spectacular showdown with Petros and Simbu. Defending champion Victor Kiplangat from Uganda came behind Ringer (2:11:14) only as 15th.
Heat is difficult for runners
In the event of heat and high humidity – this had already been shown when walking over 35 kilometers and the marathon of the women the day before – the supply with cooling ice, water and energy -containing drinks at the catering stands was again provided: the DLV duo was provided with bottles, cups, hats and cloths every five kilometers. So Petros and Ringer, the European champion of Munich 2022, managed to end the race without visible physical break -in.