SINGAPORE - Soh Rui Yong struggled first with a knee injury, and then Covid-19 in the first quarter of 2022, but Singapore's top distance runner is now back in full stride.
On Friday (June 17) evening at the Waltham Forest Feel Good Centre in London, the 30-year-old lowered his national record in the 10,000m by almost four seconds with a 31min 12.05sec effort in the England Athletics' Championships. His previous mark was 31:15.95, set in 2014 in Oregon.
He finished 10th overall. Charlie Brisley topped the field of 76 finishers with a time of 29:54.36.
The 10,000m was the oldest of Soh's four current national marks - the others are the 5,000m (set in July 2021), half marathon (January 2019) and marathon (December 2021).
He told The Straits Times "I knew I was in better shape than when I ran the previous (mark) eight years ago but we've been having a heatwave causing the hottest weather in United Kingdom history so there was a lot of uncertainty around how fast we'd be able to go.
"To overcome it, I focused on controlling the controllables - staying calm, and executing the best I could without wasting energy worrying about the weather."
Soh, the 2015 and 2017 SEA Games marathon champion, left Singapore in late January to enrol in University College London, where he is reading law.
He admitted he had "been partying a lot and having a lot of late nights" to relieve stress after his exams ended in May, and said he was "mildly worried" his performance would be affected.
"But I guess this shows you can have fun and still perform at your job," he quipped.
Things were not as cheery for him at the start of the year, when he struggled with a knee issue which he suffered at the Singapore National Championships in January, before being infected with Covid-19 soon after arriving in London.
After first training with the Highgate Harriers, he transitioned to training with coach Phil Kissi, whom he says has been dishing out "the hardest workouts of my life". He has since been able to reach peak performance levels again.
While he will not compete at the Asian Games in Hangzhou after his nomination was rejected owing to a long-running issue with selectors at the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC), Soh has set his sights on the World Half Marathon Championships in Yangzhou, China, in November.
To qualify for Yangzhou, Soh needs to clock under 70 minutes - his national mark is 66:41 - but he wants to clock the best time possible, given only one Singaporean will be sent by Singapore Athletics to the world championships. Another top local runner, 2013 SEA Games champion Mok Ying Ren, has a personal best of 67:08.
Soh aims to qualify for the world meet at the Hamburg Half Marathon on June 26.
He will also be returning to Singapore to take part in the 2.4km challenge in the Pocari Sweat Run, which will take place on Aug 20-21.
"I'll be racing with (Jeevaneesh Soundararajah) there and will definitely be keen to get the 2.4km national best (performance mark) back... It's a whole lot of fun given the significance of the 2.4km in Singapore."
