StanChart renews sponsorship of marathon for new 3-year term

SINGAPORE — Standard Chartered announced a new S$10.5 million sponsorship of the Singapore Marathon yesterday, ensuring the popular event — its participation has grown from 6,000 in its inaugural race in 2002 to 54,000 in last year’s edition — will run for another three years.

Announcing the new deal, which is a 7 per cent increase over the existing three-year deal, the bank’s Singapore CEO Neeraj Swaroop said the biggest underlying factor for its sponsorship is the event’s engagement with the community.

“We see ourselves as a bank that has to be linked (with) the communities around, rather than only being there for commercial reasons,” he said.

Another reason for continuing to back the marathon for another three years is the positive public perception of its involvement in the event, he added.

Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin, who was guest of honour at yesterday’s announcement, said sport is for every Singaporean to participate in and that the corporate sector can take StanChart’s lead and step forward to support mass-participation events in a big way.

“What is quite clear for sport is that companies carry out corporate social responsibility on many fronts and sport is a good way because not only can you fuse the charity element, you can also bring on board many Singaporeans to take part,” said Mr Tan.

Despite its growing popularity, this year’s Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore will be kept to around the same as last year’s 54,000, as this is a figure the roads here are able to accommodate, said Sport Singapore CEO Lim Teck Yin.

The Padang traditionally serves as the hub of the marathon, which takes place in the first Sunday of December, but a switch to the Sports Hub — which will be opened in June — depends on whether it would clash with concurrent events, said Mr Lim.

One such event is the AFF Suzuki Cup, which runs from Nov 22 to Dec 20, which Singapore is co-hosting with Vietnam.

Safety at mass events is under scrutiny after 24-year-old National Serviceman Chia Wee Kiak died earlier this month after an accident at the OCBC Cycle Singapore.

Mr Chris Robb, Managing Director of Spectrum Worldwide, organisers of both the Singapore Marathon and OCBC Cyle Singapore, said safety measures are constantly reviewed with its partners after every event with the view of improving them.

“We focus on what we can do better, instead of patting ourselves on the back saying, ‘Weren’t we great’,” said Mr Robb. “If we’ve got something wrong, let’s understand how we can improve; let’s look at moving forward. It is an ongoing process.

Corrections: This story originally said that the sponsorship amount was S$10.75 million, the inaugural race was in 1982, and 65,000 ran in 2013. This is incorrect. The sponsorship amount is S$10.5 million, the inaugural race was in 2002, and 54,000 ran last year. The story also said that it will reduce sign-ups to 55,000, 10,000 less than last year. This is also incorrect. The sign-ups will be kept around the same as last year’s 54,000. We apologise for the errors. This story was updated on April 22 at 5.20pm.