sprint finish

plural sprint finishes

1. A sprint at the end of a race, usually to decide the winner.

   It was a sprint finish and I won by a tiny margin, but I beat some notable senior national level runners for the first time

   2021, Emma Carney, Jane E Hunt, Hard Wired: Life, Death and Triathlon

   1 more example

   It was the first marathon I'd ever taken part in – and, unbelievably, I won. I needed a sprint finish to do it, too. Honestly, there couldn't have been anything more than the thickness of a vest.

   2016, Michael McEwan (main author, maybe some other runner actually wrote this bit), Running the Smoke: 26 First-Hand Accounts of Tackling the London Marathon

2. broadlyA hurried commotion at the end of a long process

   If you need to make a sprint finish to your date or get held up in traffic, this will just add to the pressure!

   2023, Hayley Quinn, Do This, Not That: Dating