Cheryl Chan and Ang Chee Yong win 8.5km POSB Run for Kids race

Anchorvale St, Sunday, September 19, 2010 — Ang Chee Yong and Cheryl Chan won the men’s and women’s 8.5km races respectively at the 2010 POSB Run for Kids.

Chee Yong, 31, clocked 29 minutes and 9 seconds to finish just ahead of a Aldrich Lim (29:19), last year’s winner.

“Aldrich started fast and furious, I just hung with him until the U-turn point and started to wind up my pace. I kept the pace up and managed to complete the race,” said Chee Yong whose next race is the MOE Olive Run on September 25th at East Coast Park. Chee Yong also ran in the Army Half Marathon the week before the POSB run.

Aldrich, 16, said he lacked training and started to fade half way through but he was happy about his time.

“During the run, I started well for the first 4km and was in the lead. However, due to insufficient conditioning as I am preparing for O levels, Chee Yong overtook me at the turning point. The difficult thing about the run was probably the weather,” said Aldrich. “The good thing about the run was there are sufficient marshals along the route to guide the runners along the right path and I had a satisfactory time.”

Chee Yong, currently a PE teacher in a secondary school, ranks the mile and the 1500m as his favourite races. He was taking part in the POSB Run for Kids for the first time.

When asked what has been his best race so far, he said: “The IVP (Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic) 2006 1500m. I finally won the gold medal for 1500m that had eluded me in my 3 years in NTU.”

In the women’s race, Cheryl Chan, 15, of Cedar Girls’ Secondary, won with a time of 34:04.

“Yes, I was leading all the way,” recounted Cheryl about the race. “On the way back, I met my coach. He asked me to maintain my position so I guess that gave me the motivation to pull away.”

Cheryl is also on the cross-country team for her school and finished third in last year’s inaugural POSB Run for Kids.

“My favourite distance would be the 10km. I’m a 800m runner but I have a strong passion for long runs!” said Cheryl, who also took part in the Yellow Ribbon 10km run on September 5th.

“I’ll be taking a break for the exams and will be back for the Nike run on 24th Oct! My teachers signed up for it (the POSB run) so I was thinking ‘Why not give it a try?'” added Cheryl.

Her favourite races so far?

“The best would be the national cross-country and the national schools,” said Cheryl.