By Elvin Liang
Mok Ying Rong crossing the finishing line of the 15km race in first place. She clocked 1:06:13. (Photo 1 © Elvin Liang/Red Sports)
Angsana Green, East Coast Park, Sunday, July 21, 2013 – Mok Ying Rong, 19, defended her 15km title at the 2013 Race Against Cancer, convincingly finishing in 1 hour 6 minutes and 13 seconds. It was an improvement of 31 seconds over her timing last year.
In second place was newcomer Marie Leautey of France who completed with a timing of 1:12:13. Marie moved from Greece to Singapore in 2012 for work and to pursue her passion for sports.
Natalie Tiong, a local athlete from the Singapore Institute of Management, took home the bronze medal with a timing of 1:13:54. Natalie said she is looking forward and training hard for the upcoming 21km Army Half Marathon which will be held in September.
Anne Qi Hui snapped up the 10km gold medal with a 39:16 timing. Newcomer Vanja Cnops of Belgium, who finished second in 41:28, is currently a researcher at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and trains with the NTU aquathlon team. Katriona Wilson of the United Kingdom and a physical education teacher at the Anglo-Chinese School (International), stopped the clock at 44:39 to earn herself the bronze.
Winning the 15km Men Category was Nepalese Jagat Bahadur Magar in 55 minutes 58 seconds. Jagat’s timing is consistent with his timing of 55.54 in last year’s race when he finished in second place. Trailing him in second this year was Ho Ghim Khoon with a 56:41 timing. Joining them on the podium in third place was Tan Tien Wei who clocked 58.30.
In the 10km Men Category, the first and second spots were dominated by Kenyans Hillary Chirchir and Ken Kipkirui Langat with times of 32:25 and 35:18 respectively. Chirchir was also the recent winner of the Jurong Lake Run while Langat was third.
Nepalese Umesh Rai was made the podium in third with a timing of 35:46. All three winners were running neck and neck throughout the race but Chirchir increased his pace and eventually broke away in the last 1km to cross the finishing line first.
Team Mizuno bagged the gold medal in the 10km Corporate Team Challenge with an average time of 37:22 but the excitement was in the fight for second place between the NTU and the National University of Singapore (NUS) aquathlon teams. The NTU team eventually finished with an average time of 41:01 with NUS just behind with 41:07.
Joel Tan, part of the 5-man NTU team and also a third year mechanical engineering student, said that the group tried to stick as close as possible to NUS.
“The pace was quite fast at the beginning. We probably could have done better with a longer warm-up,” Joel added.
Baldwin Choy of NUS said the team did not expect to see the NTU aquathlon team at the race.
“The run became more relaxed after the 3km mark where the team began to cruise throughout the rest of the route until the last part of the run,” he recounted.
Both the NTU and NUS aquathlon teams will cross swords again at this year’s Singapore University Games (SUniG) to be held on September 21 at the SAFRA Seasports Centre.
15km Men’s Category
1st Jagat Bahadur Magar (#30870) – 55 minutes 58 seconds
2nd Ho Ghim Khoon (#31254) – 56:41
3rd Tan Tien Wei (#31317) – 58:30
10km Men’s Category
1st Hillary Chirchir (#10487) – 32:25
2nd Ken Kipkirui Langat (#10486) – 35:18
3rd Umesh Rai (#11889) – 35:46
15km Women’s Category
1st Mok Ying Rong (#40187) – 1 hour 6 minutes 13 seconds
2nd Marie Leautey (#40498) – 1:12:13
3rd Tiong Wei Fang, Natalie (#40531) – 1:13:54
10km Women’s Category
1st Anne Qi Hui (#20627) – 39:16
2nd Vanja Cnops (#02036) – 41:28
3rd Katriona Wilson (#21058) – 44:39
10km Corporate Team Challenge
1st Team Mizuno – 37:22
2nd NTU Aquathlon – 41:01
3rd NUS Aquathlon – 41:07
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