Story by Colin Tung/Red Sports

mok ying ren

Mok Ying Ren (left) finishing his marathon with his training partner and pacer Jason Lawrence at the 2010 Singapore Marathon. (Photo 1 by Dinah Chan, courtesy of Mok Ying Ren)

Gold Coast, Australia, Sunday, July 3, 2011 — Clocking 2 hours 27 minutes 5 seconds to finish 13th at the Gold Coast Marathon, top Singaporean distance-runner Mok Ying Ren came up short in his bid to break the marathon national record of 2:24:22 for the second time in a month.

Mok, who is set to turn 23 on Wednesday, placed second in his age group (18 to 24 years).

Other Singaporeans in the race were Ashley Liew (2009 and 2010 runner-up in the Singapore Marathon local category) and Ramesh Palaniandy (2010 second runner-up in Singapore Marathon local category). They finished in 34th and 93rd positions in times of 2:41:57 and 2:55:23 respectively.

Nicholas Manza Kamakya of Kenya won the marathon in 2:10:01. Like Mok, the Gold Coast Marathon was Kamakya’s fourth after runner-up finishes in Beijing and Los Angeles in 2009 and 2011 respectively and a sixth-placing at Rome in 2010.

After the race, Mok rued: “I don’t really focus on breaking the records as it only leads to more stress on myself. But definitely, it would have been exciting if I did.”

Mok had timed 2:26:33 last month to win the Christchurch Marathon in New Zealand. The performance had placed the national record held by Murugiah Rameshon, just over two minutes ahead of his winning time, within his sights.

“My targets for the race were to run a personal best and to break the national record,” said Mok about the Gold Coast Marathon.

With a halfway split of 1:10:56, Mok was on course to add a second national record (after the 5000m) to his name. However, a 1:16:08 second half derailed his record-breaking attempt.

“My race went well actually in terms of racing but fell short in terms of the timing. I had to make a gamble in the middle of the race to catch some runners and it led to me overheating in the last kilometres,” Mok surmised in a text message.

Between the 20 and 25km marks, Mok had moved from 28th position to 18th. And between the 25 and 30km marks, he further progressed from 18th to 14th before finally settling in 13th position between the 35 and 40km marks.

After an intense month of racing overseas, including the 5000m national record in Japan (to be ratified by the Singapore Athletic Association) and the two marathons in New Zealand and Australia, Mok said: “My plans are to train for the SEA Games and also to win the local category at our very own Singapore Marathon.”