Standard Chartered Marathon 2010 - Local Winners

Next Issue : S. Jeevanesh, the 10km men open champion

Mok Ying Ren (men) and Anne Date (women) are local winners for the Year 2010

Ashley Liew and Elaine Lim are second in local men and women, respectively

Picture 1- Left to Right - Second position Ashley Liew, winner Mok Ying Ren and third position runner Ramesh

I remember Mr Ralph, the then Technical Director of SAA, in the year 2007, running to me and congratulating me. Daniel Ling and I came in first and second in that year. Mr Ralph told me that it was about time that Singaporeans can do a sub 2hr 50min after several years of men open runners doing a sub 3hrs.  I remember, in the year 1987, I did a 2hr 40min for my first marathon with Ricky Khoo about few seconds away from me. Behind me doing a 2hr 42min was marathoner Tan Choon Ghee. In year 1994, I can recall myself doing a 2hr 34min 02sec for the Singapore International Marathon.

Picture 2 - Ashley Liew - Second in local men open again in the year 2010

Today was a good day. Mok Ying Ren, who ran the race with Jason Lawrence, his training partner, nearly all the way, did a 2hr 38min 27sec for the Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon 2010 and emerged the champion. At the four kilometres mark, I saw a group of international elite men open runners doing 12min 46sec at that point. Immediately, after some time I saw Ashley Liew running very relaxed doing a time of around 14min. That means, he was doing per kilometres in somewhere around 3min 25sec to 3min 30sec pace. I realised that the pace was very fast and shouted,"Relax!". I did not know whether he heard it or not but I told that to Galen Ruben, who came with me in the morning to see the race. We had to wake up at 4am for this. It was in fact a very fast pace and I predicted immediately that Ashley is going to be killed at the end.

At 4km mark, the international female runners were bunched up together, running behind Ashley. Owing to  road block, Galen and I decided to go to Fort Road to see the race from the 29km mark. There I saw Mok coming, with Jason, comfortably smiling. We then saw Ashley getting slower over time. Hence, I realise that my prediction had come true. Later on, I saw Ramesh and Zhiyong running past. After sometime, I felt that, in order not to be blocked by road block, the next point we were able to go was the last 1.5km mark of the marathon. Galen and I saw Mok, still coming in with Jason. Finally, Mok did 2hr 38min 27sec. After that Ashley came in after some timne and finished the race in 2hr 52min 29sec, 1min short of last year's time. After sometime Ramesh Palaniandy came in and got third with a time of 2hr 52min 54sec.

Pic 3 - Rameshon, Lim Thow Wee (3min 02sec) and his wife, Elizabeth

Last year Mok did 2hr 43min. Hence, there is a 5 min improvement.  The good news to Singaporeans is that it is high time that our runners are doing sub 2hr 40min. Brendan Lee, a Singapore Management University student came in 9th with a time of 3hr 02min, an improvement of 3min from last year's timing. Lim Thow Wee, another runner of our group did a time of 3hr 02min and ended 10th. Lim Thow Wee did 3hr 10min and 3hr 09min in year 2008 and 2009, respectively. Dr Ben Tan, courageously did a 3hr 22min, despite his new task of taking over the helm as the president of Singapore Sailing Federation. For me, this is a very good time and we should learn from him in not giving excuses and run in the marathon race, even with any difficulty.

Picture 4 - Ashley Liew (left) and training partner Brendan Lee (right), with new pb 3hr 02min

In the women's race, Anne Date came in first in the local women open marathon section by doing 3hr 12min 24sec for the race. Coming in second position was Elaine Lim, Dr Goh Chor Boon's athlete. I saw Dr Goh at 29km mark very busy attending to his runner's timing etc.

Picture 5- Anne Date is the current winner of SSCM 2010 for women marathon

In men open race for 10km, Galen and I saw at the early part of the race where as S. Jeevanesh, a Hwa Chong Institution student, trying to  run close to Aldrich Lim, and the latter was doing his best to open up. This went on for some time. Towards the end, Galen and I were at the finish point to see who comes in first. We heard the announcer yelling for S. Jeevanesh as the oncoming first runner. S. Jeevanesh sprinted towards the end and came in champion with a time of 38m in 59sec and Aldrich doing 39min 17sec. Jian Hong, from Hwa Chong Institution came in third in the race. 

Later on, I saw this dedicated runner by the name of  Mok Ying Rong. I realised that she has done a very good time for the race. She was fourth doing a time of 44min plus. She told me that this month was not a good month for her. I realised that, plus and minus, here and there, her timing should be 40-41min, instead of 44min plus, judging from the timeing usually done by Jeeva and Aldrich, who were usually 4mins faster. We discussed about periodisation of running throughout the year. I can see the keeness in wanting to learn how to train effectively from Mok Ying Rong's discussion. I believe that the questions she posed shows in future if she is consistent and keep sustaining in running, she will go very far and represent Singapore in reputable races. 

We realised that in the marathon men's category, 4 our group members - Ashley Liew, Dr Benny Goh, Brendan and Lim Thow Wee- top 10 position as opposed to 2 of our group athletes getting top 10 in the marathon men open category. The Hwa Chong athletes, 3 of them are top 9 athletes in men open category of 10km, and some Singapore Management University students took some photos together. I will be posting this later. Thus, Galen and I ended the day with a masala thosai, an Indian vegetarian type food with potatoes in it. I went back home and reached at around 1pm and slept for several hours. What a day!

Pic 6 - (Left to Right) Sheryl Loh, Rameshon, Ashley Liew, Zeling Goh, Ze Hui and Galen Ruben Demetrius

Results of Marathon Men Open (local)
1 2hr 38min 26sec Mok Ying Ren
2 2hr 52min 29sec Ashley Liew
3 2hr 52min 53sec Ramesh Palaniandy
4 2hr 53min 25sec Soon Suan Boon
5 2hr 54min 32sec  Ang Chee Yong
6 2hr 55min 49sec Devathas Satianathan
7 2hr 56min 05sec Benny Goh
8 2hr 57min 15sec Alex Ong
9 3hr 02min 09sec Brendran Lee
10 3hr 02min 14sec Lim Thow Wee

Picture 7 - Left to right of Top 10 runners, second from left (Devadas -6th).