Soh breaks his own half marathon record and sets new national 10km record.
SINGAPORE: Singapore national long-distance runner and multiple national record-holder Soh Rui Yong rewrote two records at the 2023 Valencia Half Marathon Trinidad Alfonso Zurich. The event in Spain on Sunday saw Soh finishing the half marathon with a time of 66:45, a second faster than his previous record set during the 2019 Houston Half Marathon.
“Not being picked for the Asian Games team despite qualifying was annoying. Managed to channel that frustration positively in training for this performance. We can’t change what people want to do or say about us, but we can work hard and show them – we’re still the best,” said Soh, who also set a new national record when he won the silver medal for the 10,000m race at the 2023 SEA Games earlier this year in Cambodia with a time of 31:10:70.
The Valencia Half Marathon male category was won by Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie with a time of 57:40, and he was followed closely by Ethiopian duo Yomif Kejelcha and Hagost Gebrhiwet, who went past the finishing line a second later. This is the third time Kandia has won the Valencia Half Marathon, as he also took the top spot in 2020 and 2022.
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