SINGAPORE - Singapore's Mok Ying Ren defied challenging conditions to finish eighth overall in the half-marathon at the Christchurch Marathon in New Zealand on Sunday (June 4).

The 2013 SEA Games marathon champion, who is managed by ONEathlete , finished in 1hr 11.33sec on a cold (7 deg C) and rainy morning. The 21.1km category featured 1,736 runners.

Mok, who holds the national half-marathon record of 1:07:08 clocked in January 2016 in Arizona, told website runONE that the result was a good gauge of his form ahead of August's SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur.

He said: "It always feel good to run in Christchurch, where I won my first international marathon in 2011.

"Competition is always good with the top Kiwi runners in the mix.

"My objective was to put in a hard effort in the build-up towards the SEA Games in two months' time and it turned out well. I had wanted it to be faster but it was still overall a good run for me...

"I'm looking forward to putting in another two months of hard training to prepare for the SEA Games. The support from sponsors, colleagues, and supporters have been very helpful to focus on the training itself."