SINGAPORE: National marathoner Soh Rui Yong “channeled his frustration” at being excluded from the recent Asian Games into his performance at the Valencia Half Marathon on Sunday (Oct 22).
The 32-year-old broke two national records, slicing a second off his previous half marathon mark with a time of 1:06:45 and eclipsed the 10km road record – formerly held by Mok Ying Ren and Jeevaneesh Soundararajah – with a time of 31:39.
Going into the race, which he labelled “one of my favourite races in the whole world”, Soh was already the national record holder of the 5,000m, 10,000m, 5km road, half marathon and marathon events, and he finished 60th out of 17,359 runners.
Valencia holds fond memories for Soh, who set the national marathon record of 2:22:59 in December 2021, and he wrote on Facebook that the Spanish coastal city was his “happiest place in the world to race”.
“Not being picked for the Asian Games team despite qualifying was annoying,” Soh said on Monday.
“Managed to channel that frustration positively in training for this performance. We can’t change what people want to do or say about us, but we can work hard and show them – we’re still the best.”
Soh, who held his wedding in September, also referenced how his latest marks were his “first records as a married man”.
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Soh was excluded from the recent Hangzhou Asian Games after the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) said in June they found he “failed to honour commitments which he had provided to the SNOC” and made “disparaging” remarks about others in the public domain.
He clinched a silver medal in the men’s 10,000m race at the SEA Games in May after a more than five-year absence, following several clashes with SNOC.
In an Instagram post, the Singapore Athletics Association hailed Soh’s latest feats in Valencia and said he was training for the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon, which will be held on Dec 3.