S'pore Runner Soh Rui Yong Fires Back at SNOC’s Mark Chay, Highlights Struggles of Singapore Athletes
The national runner says local athletes — many of them students and working professionals — are being unfairly compared to full-time competitors.
What started as a disagreement between figures in Singapore’s sports fraternity has quickly escalated on social media, capturing the attention of Singaporeans.
National runner Soh Rui Yong fired back after Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) Secretary-General Mark Chay called for Singapore Athletics to "come to the party" in the country’s pursuit of gold medals.
Since then, Rui Yong has taken to Facebook to defend the performance of the Singapore's athletics team, saying that is filled with full-time students and working professionals who are pitted against full-time athletes.
He has also taken to shining a spotlight on our local athletes who receive little to no financial support in their pursuit of international success, tagging Mark in several posts to underline the disparity.
In a post today (Dec 24), Rui Yong revealed he had received a request to stop tagging Mark in his social media posts.
“I will honour this request. But the profiling of my fellow athletes representing this country and what they’re up against in the quest for gold will continue. As will the new motto. “Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight,” he wrote.
Here are three athletes Rui Yong has profiled since the debacle started, shedding light on the uphill battles they faced.
Shaun Goh
The 28-year-old is a full-time software engineer who trains before and after his office hours. Shaun has an existing contract with sportswear brand Puma, Rui Yong has pointed out that is not paid enough to be a full-time athlete.
At the SEA Games, Shaun clocked two personal bests (PB), 14:55 in the 5,000m and 31:02 in the 10,000m, becoming only the second Singaporean man (after Rui Yong) in 52 years to break the national record in the 10,000m.
In contrast, Kieran Tuntivate of Thailand is a full-time professional runner for the Nike Bowerman Track Club.
The 28-year-old, who is of Thai American heritage, is also supported by various Thai and international corporations and would have been one of the best runners in the USA had he chosen to run for them.
He went on to win the unprecedented men’s triple of 1,500m, 5,000m, and 10,000m at the SEA Games, even scoring two PBs.
Zubin Percy Muncherji
The 29-year-old is a full-time government worker who trains before and after office hours. Zubib also has no brand sponsorships.
However, he went on to set a new PB in the 400m with 47.02s and a National Record (NR) in the 800m with 53.69 seconds.
In contrast, 400m gold medallist Joshua Atkinson of Thailand, is a full-time athlete who also won the 4x400m relay.
Rui Yong also highlighted that the 22-year-old Joshua, who is Thai-English-Australian, would have been one of the UK’s or Australia’s best runners should he represent them.
Eric Yee
A fresh graduate from National University of Singapore (NUS), Eric postponed his job search to focus on training for his pet event, the discus. Rui Yong noted that the 26-year-old went without a university graduate’s income while not being sponsored.
Eric’s competition, on the other hand, is Muhammad Irfan Shamsuddin of Malaysia, who won gold for the discus, has his own businesses and sponsorships.
The 30-year-old Malaysian won the men’s event at this year’s SEA Games with a throw of 60.23m, destroying Singaporean James Wong’s 26-year-old Games Record (59.50m) in the process.
Eric’s discus personal best was 49.51 metres, with Rui Yong highlighting that even the greatest Singapore thrower of all time, aka James, would not have won the gold this year.
Photos: Soh Rui Yong/FB, SNOC
