S’pore sprinter Marc Louis follows in Shanti Pereira’s footsteps by turning full time

SINGAPORE – In the last two years, sprinter Marc Louis broke longstanding 60m and 100m national records, and won Singapore’s first 100m silver medal at the SEA Games in over a decade – all these while he was a full-time national serviceman.

Having completed his NS obligations last December, he is excited at what he can achieve as he goes all in on his track ambitions in 2025.

The 22-year-old told The Straits Times that he has decided to pursue a full-time athletic career for a year to see how far he can go, following discussions with his parents and coach Benber Yu.

The ITE College Central graduate said: “In the past few years, I have seen good results and been running good times.

“This year, I felt that going full time will mean there is more time to recover, more time to train and more time to improve all the things that I need to, especially physically and, hopefully, all these will allow me to hit even better times.

“That’s what I am hoping to achieve in 2025.”

Louis has produced several notable moments in the past two years.

At the

2023 SEA Games in Cambodia, he won Singapore’s first 100m silver

since Gary Yeo’s runner-up finish in 2011. With his time of 10.39 seconds, Louis was just 0.02sec behind the winner, Soraoat Dapbang of Thailand.

Four months later, Louis set a national record of 10.27sec at the Hangzhou Asian Games to lower U.K. Shyam’s 2001 mark by 0.10sec.

He then

broke the national 60m record at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow in March 2024

with his 6.69sec effort, eclipsing Yeo’s 2012 mark by 0.02sec.

Louis said sprint queen Shanti Pereira’s scintillating form after turning full time has motivated him to reach her level. Pereira produced arguably the greatest individual year in Singapore track and field history in 2023, after starting full-time training in January that year.

She won the 100m and 200m at the Cambodia SEA Games and Asian Athletics Championships. She also became the first Singaporean track and field athlete to reach the semi-finals of the world championships and qualified for the Paris Olympics on merit.

Later that year, Pereira ended Singapore’s 49-year wait for a track and field gold at the Asian Games by claiming the 200m crown, to add to her 100m silver.

Coach Yu, who has worked with Louis for over a decade, said he was “very excited” about his protege’s potential.

“For the past few years, he had been studying, doing internships and then was in NS. Now he can finally unleash his potential,” said Yu.

“Last time, his attention was divided but, doing this full time, you can focus on training, focus on resting, focus on strengthening areas that we need to improve on.”

While he was a clerk at Nee Soon Camp during NS, Louis trained up to six times a week. He would leave camp at 5pm and head to Bishan Stadium for an evening session on weekdays, with at least one session on weekends.

Now, the Sport Excellence Scholarship holder will train up to 11 times a week, with double sessions on some days and two gym sessions a week.

Yu also spelled out the targets which he feels Louis can hit in 2025 – lowering his own 100m national record to 10.19sec and breaking the 200m record with a 20.8sec time.

The current 200m mark of 21.07sec was set by Reuben Lee at the Hanoi SEA Games in 2022, 0.07sec under Louis’ personal best of 21.14sec, which was recorded at the Philippine Championships in 2024.

Louis is hungry to show what he can do in 2025, especially after ending his 2024 season on a disappointing note when he had to withdraw from running a second race during his Olympic debut last August.

After clocking 10.43sec in the preliminaries to advance to the first round, discomfort in his right hamstring prompted him to pull out of competition to prevent further damage.

But he is now free of any issues and ready for a busy year as he eyes competitions such as the World Athletics Indoor Championships (March), Asian championships (May) and the world championships (September).

The Dec 9-20 SEA Games in Thailand is the big one for the soft-spoken speedster, who is looking to make history by clinching a gold medal. He won a 100m bronze on his Games debut in Hanoi in 2022, before following it up with a silver in Cambodia.

The last Singaporean male athlete to win a sprint gold at the regional meet was C. Kunalan, who clinched the 100m and 200m double at the 1969 Games in Burma, now known as Myanmar.

Ending the 56-year-wait will mean that Louis will need to get the better of home favourites Puripol Boonson – the only South-east Asian to reach the 100m semi-finals at the Paris Olympics – and Soraoat, the defending champion in both distances.

Flashing his trademark sheepish smile, Louis said: “The first SEA Games that I went to, I was already hoping to get a gold medal so that target has always been there and I went very close in 2023. I am just going to let my legs do the talking this year.”