Sport Singapore appoints Ironman Endurance Asia to organise StanChart Marathon until 2025

Participants at the Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore in 2015. PHOTO: ST FILE

SINGAPORE - Sport Singapore (SportSG) has appointed Ironman Endurance Asia to run the Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore (SCMS) for the next decade, beginning with this year's edition until 2025.

The result comes after SportSG evaluated five proposals, following its unusual request for tenders to organise future editions of the SCMS including this year's, which incumbent organiser Spectrum Worldwide (SWW) was still under contract to run.

The Straits Times reported last month that SWW owed various vendors six-figure amounts each for their services ranging from road barricades, tentage, advertising boards and online registration services. Some of the delayed payments go back to the 2014 edition of the race. It is believed that, in all, close to a million dollars was due.

SWW is said to have since entered into an agreement with Ironman to be acquired by Wanda Sports, Ironman's parent company.

Despite that, SportSG said it put its trust in Ironman after looking at five strong proposals from seven parties. The Straits Times understands that SportSG did not set the repayment of SWW's outstanding debt as criteria for anyone who put up a proposal.

Said SportSG chief executive officer Lim Teck Yin: "Ironman presented a comprehensive proposal that best met our aspirations. With its extensive expertise and experience through nearly 260 events globally, we believe that it has the right acumen to enhance Marathon Singapore locally and internationally."

The SCMS is one of the largest running events in Singapore, with some 50,000 taking part last year. This year would be the 15th year of partnership between the marathon and title sponsor Standard Chartered Bank.

The event, which will take place on Dec 4 this year, will begin its "Digital Queue" for a week beginning on June 25. Interested runners can register for the "Digital Queue" from June 23 by connecting their social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), with the top 100 from it on July 1 getting free race passes to a category of their choice.

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