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Soh Rui Yong and Rachel See crowned national champions at Stanchart Marathon

SINGAPORE — Two-time SEA Games gold medallist Soh Rui Yong and Rachel See were crowned national champions at the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon (SCSM) on Sunday (Dec 3) after emerging as the top local finishers.

Two-time SEA Games gold medallist Soh Rui Yong (top) and Rachel See were crowned national champions at the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon (SCSM) on Sunday (Dec 3) after emerging as the top local finishers. Photo: Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2017

Two-time SEA Games gold medallist Soh Rui Yong (top) and Rachel See were crowned national champions at the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon (SCSM) on Sunday (Dec 3) after emerging as the top local finishers. Photo: Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2017

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SINGAPORE — Two-time SEA Games gold medallist Soh Rui Yong and Rachel See were crowned national champions at the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon (SCSM) on Sunday (Dec 3) after emerging as the top local finishers.

This is the first time in the event's 16-year history that the SCSM has doubled up as the national championships, with Soh and See claiming the men's and women's titles respectively in 2hr 35min 55sec and 3hr 11min 8sec.

It was an all-Kenyan affair in the men's and women's categories, as Cosmas Kimutai and Pamela Rotich swept the honours in respective times of 2:22:48 and 2:38:31. The top runners won S$50,000 each, while the men's and women's local winners each received S$10,000.

Ahead of the Dec 3 event, Soh had targeted a 2:34:00 finish to better the fastest time clocked in a Singapore marathon race. M Rameshon holds the record of 2:34:02 clocked at the 1994 Singapore International Marathon.

But a lack of preparation saw him missing out by almost 2min. The 26-year-old had only decided to take part in the SCSM about two weeks ago and did not have as much time training as compared to the 2017 SEA Games.

"I still thought I had the chance to run 2:34:00…at the halfway mark I was at 1:17:02 and I continued that pace until the 30-32km mark," he said.

"But once we started running into the back of the half marathon runners, unfortunately that caused a lot of weaving in and out and my calves were already complaining back then, starting to cramp up, so I decided not to gamble so much, just finish the race, have a good experience, go back and recuperate."

Nonetheless, Soh enjoyed running in his first-ever SCSM, as he added: "(Rameshon's) record will come some day, I just wanted to get the win down today, and get to experience what it's like to run the StanChart…It's fun to be out there with all the Singaporeans."

Over in the local women's category, newly-crowned champion See said she was extremely pleased with her performance as she had set a new personal best on local soil.

I'm happy with my performance, it was better than expected… my pacing was quite consistent, I didn't go too fast in the beginning and towards the end I wasn't tired at all," said the 34-year-old mother of two.

"The conditions were quite good, the water points were very well spread out, and the weather wasn't that hot…the only thing that could have made the race better was if it had rained. It would have been refreshing," she added.

This year's SCSM - which also includes the half-marathon, 10km, Ekiden and Kids Dash categories - attracted a total of 48,400 runners comprising 126 nationalities. All 12,500 marathon slots were sold out for the first time this year.

While there were a few complaints about long waits at the baggage drop-off points, most of the participants TODAY spoke to were full of praise for race organisers, as they cited the many water points and scenic route as highlights.

Mr Ashley Yeo, 28, who took part in the Ekiden event, said: "There were some minor issues like I was trying to track my friend's performance in the full marathon through the app and it didn't work very well, and the shuttle bus did take quite long.

"But overall, I think the event was extremely well-organised especially given its scale. But the issues I've mentioned, I think they happen in nearly every race."

Local men's winner Soh also experienced an unexpected delay on the bus.

"There were a couple of things that went wrong today in the morning, the runners were reporting late so the bus had to leave late, and because of some roadblocks, we were stuck in the bus for a very long time," said Soh.

However, Soh said he managed to keep his cool thanks to his girlfriend Charmaine Tay. The lovebirds had just started dating a few weeks ago, and Soh said: "We met at the Yolo run, it was a bit of a disaster run, but this was one of the good things that came out of it, so yes, good things happen when you run!"

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