By Les Tan/Red Sports
Ashley Liew heading towards the finish line as the fastest Singaporean at the 2012 Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore. (Photo 1 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Padang, Sunday, December 2, 2012 — Ashley Liew, 25, gave himself an early birthday present when he finished as the fastest Singaporean marathoner, clocking a personal best (PB) time of 2 hours 45 minutes 6.26 seconds (gun time) at the 2012 Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore.
Ashley, who turns 26 later this month, had finished seventh in the 2011 edition of this race, clocking 3:06:03.89.
His previous local PB was 2:51:22, set in the 2009 Singapore Marathon. In July of this year, Ashley ran a 2:35:40 at the Gold Coast Marathon.
Ang Chee Yong was second in 2:54:16.81 while Mok Ying Ren, who was the fastest Singaporean last year, followed in third in 2:54:57.54.
“The plan was just to take it easy at the start. Coach Rameshon and I knew my fitness was there but didn’t want to take any risks,” said Ashley.
“I had disasters in 2010, 2011, so I didn’t want to make 2012 another disaster movie. I hung back for the first 5-6km.
“2010, I wasn’t ready because I dislocated my shoulder in 2010 so my training was affected. But I felt so good at the start that I pushed really hard. I died out after 10km.
“2011, I made some mistakes leading up to the race. I did a photo shoot (for a newspaper). It was a nice photo but I had to do a lot of jumps for the photo and I’m quite sure that’s one of the reasons that tired me out. The photo shoot was just a few days before the race. I didn’t think about it at that time but you learn from all these experiences. So 2012, I couldn’t afford to make mistakes,” recounted Ashley.
Ashley spent the first part of the race in the company of a small group of elite open women numbering just under 10.
“I was surprised the elite women were also taking it pretty easy. It was only later on that I found out that they were really playing a tactical race. These women are really capable of doing fast times,” said Ashley.
“They started quite slow, but once we hit the East Coast Park, 14km onwards, then it started becoming really tactical. They sped up, they slowed down, and they kept doing this continually. So my rhythm was kind of affected, but at least there was a big group of us, so we all can work together. There’s momentum and all that. But they were continuing this tactics pretty much all the way. I was really comfortable with them until about 26, 27k. I was the odd one out. I was trying to blend in,” Ashley said with a smile.
“It was good while it lasted. But after 27k, I got dropped by them. Wow, once you get dropped, it’s really hard. I guess it was a tactical increase and I didn’t want to go with them again.”
“So once I got dropped, it was quite a lonely race from there. It was just me against the clock. I just had to hang in there. It was really tough after that. A little bit of cramps. The quads really hurting. A few images of 2010, 2011. Definitely these kinds of things will play in your mind so I just had to dig deep and try and focus on the race itself,” added Ashley.
Ashley expressed satisfaction when asked about how the race played out for him.
“Pretty satisfied. Time wise, not easy to hit a fantastic PB in Singapore. It’s good that I managed to do a sub-2:50 in Singapore,” finished Ashley.
In the lead up to this race, Ashley had taken part in the New Balance Real Run and the POSB Passion Run for Kids where he set a 10km PB of 34:09. Ashley also finished second in the 2012 Army Half Marathon earlier this year with a 1:15:20 timing.
Full Marathon (Singapore Men)
all gun times
1st Ashley Liew Wei Yen — 2:45:06.26
2nd Ang Chee Yong — 2:54:16.81
3rd Mok Ying Ren — 2:54:57.54
4th Colin Tung Zhi Shing — 2:56:23.51
5th Devathas Satianathan — 3:01:38.56
6th Ramesh Palaniandy — 3:03:07.27
7th Alex Ong Seng Lee — 3:03:43.79
8th Ivan Low — 3:04:11.52
9th Ning Wen Long — 3:05:40.30
10th Ho Ghim Khoon — 3:06:40.49
11th Teo Shau Meng — 3:06:47.27
12th Lee Hsiao Lin — 3:13:53.76
13th Tan Tze Chen — 3:14:47.99
[…] Ashley Liew, Singapore’s other marathon runner, clocked 2:42:54.18 to finish eighth in a field of nine runners. Ashley was the fastest marathoner at the 2012 Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore with a time of 2:45:06. […]
[…] winning time of 2 hours 54 minutes 17 seconds is 9 minutes slower than last year’s winning time of 2:45:06 clocked by Ashley Liew and a far cry from his personal best (PB) of 2:26:30 set earlier this year at the Gold Coast […]
[…] the turning point uneventfully. I managed to catch a glimpse of the elite women running and saw Ashley Liew, the eventual winner, running among them. I could see my chances of defending my title slip away but I decided to […]
[…] Ashley Liew came home as the fastest Singaporean male in 2:45:06.26 while Anne Qi Hui was the fastest Singaporean woman in 3:17:06.51. […]