Soh Rui Yong wins both 21km half marathon & 42km marathon in 1 weekend

The 2025 edition of the Standard Chartered marathon saw a slight change in proceedings, with its first two-day format held over the Dec. 6 and 7 weekend.

Soh Rui Yong, Singapore's fastest marathoner, came in first during the Standard Chartered half marathon on Dec. 6.

The 34-year-old received this as a reward.

That was also his first time being a half marathon national champion.

The next day was familiar territory for Soh.

On Dec. 7, he competed in the full marathon.

Despite the one-day turnaround, Soh secured his sixth Standard Chartered Marathon national title with a time of 2hrs 46mins 23secs.

In fact, both national title winners from 2024 retained their crown.

Rachel See also secured the national title after shaving over two minutes off her previous year's timing.

In his post-race interview, when asked about competing in both the half and full marathon back to back, Soh quipped that he would not be doing this again.

He said: “I tell you, it’s no joke man. I’m never gonna do this again. I definitely underestimated the race admin. The race starts at 4:20am, you wake up at 2am... You do it once a year, it’s okay. But you do it back to back days, it really sucks."

While Soh said it was very painful, this was a really unique experience, and that he had to change his usual strategy of pulling away from the pack due to the fatigue in his legs from the previous day.

SEA Games spot

Despite the impressive double win, Soh's spot in the SEA Games is still up in the air.

He underwent a routine medical screening before the December 2025 SEA Games in Thailand and was informed that he might not be cleared to compete.

This puts the 34-year-old's bid for a 10,000m medal at the games from Dec. 9 to 20 in jeopardy.

Soh's health screening at Changi General Hospital (CGH) yielded electrocardiogram (ECG) results that showed that his heart activity was “abnormal, with multiple premature ventricular complexes”, according to The Straits Times.

He would need "further cardiovascular evaluation" as a result.

Soh told ST that he hopes that the issue will be resolved in time.

Despite the uncertainty, in the post-race interview from the marathon, Soh said he was due to fly off on Tuesday, but that there were some "administration pending, so let's see what happens".

Top photos via Soh Rui Yong