Soh Rui Yong qualifies for SEA Games in marathon debut

SINGAPORE — Oregon-based distance runner Soh Rui Yong has qualified for the 2015 SEA Games after clocking a time of 2hr 26min 01sec (unofficial timing) at the California International Marathon early this morning (Dec 8).

The University of Oregon undergraduate finished fifth in the men’s 20 to 24 year old category, and was placed 38th overall. Soh’s time of 2:26:01 — the season’s fastest time by a Singaporean — also qualifies him for next year’s SEA Games, as the mark is set at the 2013 Games’ bronze medal time of 2:30:30.

Soh, 23, is set to join newly-crowned Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore local men’s winner Mok Ying Ren at the SEA Games, with Mok aiming to defend the gold medal he won in a time of 2:28:36 in Myanmar in 2013.

A national record holder in the men’s 10,000m, Soh’s debut in the marathon puts him second on the men’s marathon all-time best by a local runner, just behind Murugiah Rameshon’s national record time of 2:24:22 clocked in Chiangmai in 1995.