Singaporean runner Soh Rui Yong breaks national marathon record, meets qualifying mark for 2023 Asian Games

SINGAPORE: Singaporean long-distance runner Soh Rui Yong broke his personal national file for the marathon when he competed within the Valencia Marathon on Sunday (Dec 5).According to Valencia Marathon's web site, Soh logged an official time of two:22:59. Soh’s time bettered the mark of two:23:44 he set on the Seoul Marathon in March 2019.“I trained hard then I raced hard. You can do it too!” Soh mentioned in a Facebook put up. “Love you Maraton Valencia! The crazy winds made the race super tough, but the crowd support was amazing and willed us through.”The race was received by Kenya’s Lawrence Cherono, who completed with a time of two:05:12.With his efficiency in Spain, Soh met the Singapore Athletics nomination normal timing for subsequent 12 months’s Asian Games in Hangzhou.According to Singapore Athletics, the nomination normal timing for the Games is 2:23:42. This matches the timing of the sixth-placed runner on the 2018 Games.This comes every week after Soh hit the qualifying mark set for the ten,000m on the Asiad.The 30-year-old was additionally effectively inside the nomination normal timing for the marathon on the subsequent SEA Games, which was set at 2:33:08, corresponding with the bronze-medal timing from the 2019 Games.Soh is a two-time SEA Games marathon champion, having claimed the gold in 2015 and 2017, nonetheless, his nomination for the 2019 occasion was rejected by the SNOC.In addition to his marathon mark, Soh is the present holder of the national data for the 5,000m, the ten,000m and the half marathon, and set a national-best time over 2.4km in September.The thirty first SEA Games will happen in Hanoi from May 12 to May 23, 2023, after it was postponed on account of the COVID-19 pandemic. The nineteenth Asian Games might be held later within the 12 months from Sep 10 to Sep 25.