BY The most-anticipated running event, Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon (SCSM), saw close to 40,000 participants racing through the heart of the city across the three days and five event categories. Being the marquee running event, the race also saw the arrival of over 5,000 international runners over the weekend.
While the sun was out for the first two days of the event, it was pouring rain for the latter Half and Full Marathon categories.
With the uncertainty of the heavy downpour, the flag-off time was eventually delayed by an hour. Some participants were seen to be hurriedly warming up once again as they were alerted on the updated start time minutes before the race commenced abruptly.
Nevertheless, the runners remained optimistic and excited for the long-awaited race. Unlike the previous hybrid edition, SCSM saw the return of Half Marathon 21.1km and Marathon 42.195km categories. Against the backdrop of the pandemic, the comeback of long-distance running in its true form of road racing placed the event as the biggest mass participation sporting event.
Sanction as a World Athletics Gold Label Road Race, the competitive event saw Kenya’s Ezekiel Kemboi Omullo and Ester Wanjiru Macharia emerging as champions for the male and female Marathon 42.195km category with the timing of 2h 20sec and 2h 45min respectively. Kenyan representatives, Geoffrey Birgen and Alice Muthoni Koigi were the first male and female finishers of Half Marathon 21.1km category at a time of 1h 5min and 1h 17min respectively.
Vanessa Chong came in as the fastest female local marathon runner who finished at a time of 3h 11mins.
“The marathon started out quite rainy with a delay, but I think it was a bit of a blessing in disguise because it was quite cooling throughout. The crowd support was truly amazing and it really kept us going especially in the quieter places.”
Vanessa Chong
On the same morning, a prize presentation was also held in which the top male and female finishers of the two categories were awarded with $70,000 in total. The prize purse was presented to the winners by Sport Singapore’s Toh Boon Yi, Eileen Tay, Executive Director of Standard Chartered Bank and Jeff Edwards – Managing Director, Asia, The IRONMAN Group.
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