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The Pocari Sweat 2.4km challenge finally took place on Saturday (Jan. 8) after being postponed from last year.

Some of Singapore's fastest runners, including 24-year-old Gurkha Subas Gurung (considered to be one of the fastest Gurkhas in Singapore), took part in the event.

The Singaporeans included:

• national athlete Soh Ruiyong, who previously clocked a 6 minute 53 seconds 2.4km last year
• Ethan Yan, who clocked a 7 minutes 6 seconds 2.4km while in the army,
• Jeevanesh Soundararajah, Singapore’s representative for the 5,000 metres during the 2015 SEA Games, as well as
• national middle-distance athlete Thiruben Thana Rajan.

The event saw three people breaking the 7 minute barrier.

Jeevanesh pulled away from the pack during the last lap and stormed to a finish with an official timing of 6 minutes 52 seconds.

This is slightly faster than Soh's officially recorded timing of 6 minutes 53 seconds clocked in September last year.

Gurung finished in second place with a timing of 6 minutes 54 seconds, and Soh in third at 6 minutes 55 seconds.

Yan missed out on the sub-7 by nine seconds, finishing in fourth place.

A sub-7 2.4km entails running each lap around the track no slower than 1 minute 10 seconds.

Previously, Gurung and Soh went toe-to-toe in a 10,000m race in end-November. Soh finished first with a timing of 31:28 while Gurung followed closely behind, finishing 18s later.

Prizes

The Pocari Sweat event offers prizes to any Singaporean who can achieve a sub-seven timing for 2.4km.

Although the prizes from the race are only open to Singaporeans, this 2.4km run challenge has proven to be a marketing bonanza for Pocari Sweat as other businesses have piled on with prize offerings.

Some prizes in the pool include S$700 from Soh himself plus 700 bottles of Pocari Sweat and 700 packets of chicken rice from a chicken rice boss.

Top photo via Jeevanesh/Instagram,  Pocari Sweat Facebook Live screenshot.