Mok Ying Ren and Elaine Lim are fastest Singaporeans at Army Half-Marathon

By Les Tan/Red Sports

The Padang, Sunday, August 16, 2009 – Singaporeans Mok Ying Ren and Elaine Lim were the fastest Singaporeans at the Army Half-Marathon on Sunday.

Ying Ren finished the 21km race in 1 hour 14 minutes 27 seconds ahead of last year’s winner Lim Kien Mau who finished in 1:15:45. Ying Ren, who finished second to Kien Mau in the 2008 edition, improved on his time of 1:17:13 clocked in last year’s race.

“The route was challenging,” said Ying Ren who set a personal best of 1:12 at the Tri-Factor race two weeks ago. “I expected to be better today.”

“I ran with the Vietnamese army guys for the first 5km but they slowed down. So I had to run by myself along East Coast. At the 15km mark, I joined a Kenyan runner,” said Ying Ren.

“The overall standard of running in Singapore has improved. We have 4 or 5 runners under 1:20 this year,” added Ying Ren.

In the women’s category, Elaine Lim came back first in 1:32:46, ahead of Koh Leng Leng in 1:38:36.

"I'm happy with my performance at the SAFRA Singapore Bay Run & Army Half Marathon 2009. I did better than last year. I felt ecstatic when I crossed the finishing line. I did it!" said Elaine.

Sumiko Tan, who was third in 1:39:06, almost passed out around the 15km mark from dehydration.

“I had to throw water on myself to keep going,” she said.

The event also saw the Singapore Armed Forces service chiefs hit the race. Chief of Defence Force Lieutenant-General Desmond Quek finished the race in 2:03.

“It gets tougher each year as you get older!” he said after the race.

“I thought it was a very good run. The route is very interesting,” said Chief of Army Major-General Neo Kian Hong. “The highlight of the race was looking into the bay area.”

The fastest runner on Sunday was Agus Prayogo, 24, of Indonesia. The Indonesian army runner clocked 1:07:05, just edging out Deep Chand of India who did 1:07:08.

“I was leading from the beginning and we were together until 19km,” said Deep, 32.

Agus, whose previous best time for the 21km was 1:07:24 set in South Korea, then broke away.

Deep, who won the race in 2007 and has a personal best of 1:04:53 for the distance, kept pace with Agus but could not overhaul the younger Indonesian in the sprint to the finish line.

The Indian Army teams placed first and second while Indonesia were third.

Results
21KM MEN'S CLOSED NAME BIB NO. TIMING
1ST MOK YING REN 10002 01:14:27
2ND LIM KIEN MAU 10001 01:15:45
3RD ANG CHEE YONG 10112 01:18:22

21KM WOMEN'S CLOSED NAME BIB NO. TIMING
1ST ELAINE LIM SULIN 40002 01:32:46
2ND KOH LENG LENG 40385 01:38:36
3RD TANSOK HUE SUMIKO 40115 01:39:06

21KM MEN'S OPEN NAME BIB NO. TIMING
1ST AGUS PRAYOGO 5023 01:07:05
2ND DEEP CHAND 5073 01:07:08
3RD YADAV RAM SINGH 5081 01:07:59

21KM WOMEN'S OPEN NAME BIB NO. TIMING
1ST CATHERINE KWAMBOKA 31308 01:18:33
2ND LYDIA JEROTICH RUTTO 31283 01:22:04
3RD CECILIA WARUTUMO 31310 01:25:57

21KM MEN'S VET NAME BIB NO. TIMING
1ST JIRATTIGARN BOONMA 22010 01:16:56
2ND STEPHEN LAIDLER 22006 01:18:47
3RD JAY JOHANNESEN 21587 01:27:38

21KM WOMEN'S VET NAME BIB NO. TIMING
1ST SUPRIATI 50275 01:26:35
2ND SUE SHARP 50410 01:33:54
3RD ITSUKO LEWNES 50003 01:37:48

FOREIGN ARMY COUNTRY TOTAL TOP 5 TIMINGS
1ST INDIA ARMY TM 1 05:42:24
2ND INDIA ARMY TM 2 05:56:40
3RD INDONESIA NATIONAL ARMY 05:56:54

ARMY FORMATION TM FORMATION TOTAL TOP 14 TIMINGS
1ST COMMANDO 20:34:28
2ND 6DIV 20:45:58
3RD 2PDF TM 1 21:05:39

INTER-NS UNIT NS UNIT TOTAL TOP 3 TIMINGS
1ST HQ 9DIV 02:05:10
2ND HQ 6DIV 02:05:34
3RD HQ GUARDS 02:28:43

LOCAL INVITED TEAM TEAM TOTAL TOP 10 TIMINGS
1ST JOINT-OCS 16:09:39
2ND JOINT-HQMC 17:33:44
3RD DSO 20:45:05

Related post:
The Army Half Marathon - A Picture Story

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