Champion marathoner Soh Rui Yong has set a national record, this time for the 5km category.
Soh, 32, took to Facebook on Aug. 12 to announce his achievement, which came after he clinched a third-place finish at the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team's 5km road race event on Aug. 8 in London.
The road race, which took place in Battersea Park, saw 19 runners finish under 16 minutes, and 74 runners finish under 17 minutes.
Soh, who called the event "deeply competitive", came in third at 15 minutes 15 seconds, and was only 9 seconds behind Nick Bester, the eventual winner.
In his post, he also praised the performance of 59-year-old Clare Elms, who finished the 5km event with a timing of 18:04.
Soh's own performance makes him Singapore's new record holder for the 5km road race category, as there are no national records for the 5km road race.
However, Soh called his 15:15 timing a "soft record" as it is 31 seconds slower than the current 5,000m track record, which he set with a time of 14:44.
Besides the 5km road and track categories, Soh also holds the national records for the 10,000m track, half-marathon, and marathon events.
Singapore Athletics has said it “recognised Soh’s achievement”.
Forgot about the race until the day before
Even though Soh said his record still leaves room for improvement, it doesn't make his performance any less impressive, especially when one considers that he ran after a "full day of work", though it was a work-from-home day.
Not to mention, he did not prepare for the race either, spending the weekend in Paris Disneyland with his girlfriend to celebrate his 32nd birthday.
And what makes his performance so impressive, as Soh also told Mothership, is that he actually forgot about the race until the day before, when he found his race tag in his mail.
While he initially registered for the event to pace a friend, even after his friend couldn't make it to the race, Soh decided to give it his best shot:
“Given that I didn’t really know what to expect running this race, I just ran as hard as I could and got third, which I thought was a decent performance for a race that I wasn’t really peaking for and was doing as part of a session.”
Soh, who is currently studying law at the University College London, represented Singapore in the 2023 SEA Games, where he won a silver medal in the 10,000m event, breaking a national record in the process.
However, despite meeting the qualifications, he will not be competing in the 2023 Asian Games held in Hangzhou, China, from Sep. 23 to Oct. 8, with the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) citing "disparaging and derisive remarks" he made towards others on social media as part of the reasons why.
Soh is currently completing an internship in financial crime prevention.
He will return to Singapore this month and compete in the Safra Singapore Bay Run and Army Half Marathon and Pocari Sweat Run Singapore before heading back to Europe.
He is looking to compete in the Valencia Half Marathon and complete a marathon before 2023 ends.
Soh said about his running future: “I’ve been fortunate to see different parts of the world through running, from economic powerhouses such as USA and Europe, to the dreamy cities of Scandanavia, but also the poverty stricken nations like Kenya, Cambodia, Laos and Indonesia."
"My dream is to set up corporate sponsored sports schools for poverty stricken communities in Southeast Asia to provide poor children with opportunities to earn an education and learn life skills through sports."
"It won’t be easy, however, and education, influential networks and finances are all things I need to make this a reality. I’m working on these things while pursuing my competitive running career."
Top photos from Soh Rui Yong's Facebook.