Story by Devathas Satianathan and Colin Tung

Padang, Sunday, September 5, 2011 — A few elite local runners found themselves left out of the top ranks of the Men’s Closed category at the 20th Army Half Marathon (AHM) over the weekend.

Instead of finishing second and third respectively in the Men’s Closed category, Soh Rui Yong and Ashley Liew found themselves ranked in the Men’s Open category. The Closed category is only for Singaporeans and Permanent Residents.

Some runners also found the route to be about 700m less than the expected 21.1km.

There was also a stark difference between the gun and net times for the elite local runners. This is unusual as they started their race at the head of the pack.

Categorisation
There was initial puzzlement when Soh Rui Yong and Ashley Liew were missing from the top rankings of the Men’s Closed category.

Upon further scrutiny, they discovered that their names were instead included in the Men’s Open category together with the foreign army runners.

The race organisers had, for some reason, categorised all the individual Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) army formation runners, who are all Singaporeans and Permanent Residents, in the Men’s Open category alongside the runners from the foreign armies.

This was despite the separation of teams put up by the various SAF army formations from the international army teams in distinct team competitions. The teams from Singapore competed in the “Army Formation” category while the teams from the international armies competed in the “International Militaries” category.

Rui Yong, 20, said: “We shouldn’t be separated from other local runners just because we are running for our unit. Last year, I was also running for Armour (formation) and I was eligible under the Men’s Closed category.

“For (sic) the moment, our units are not competing against foreign armies (within the team competition). If we want to do that, then we should form a ‘Singapore Army’ team (consisting of the best runners from all the army units). Even if there is such a team to compete against the foreign armies in a team category, I still believe the individual runners should be allowed to place within the Closed category against other locals.”

Ashley, who was upset at what he terms an “unfair categorisation,” said: “This (the categorisation of Singapore Armed Forces formation runners in the Open category) was not the case in the previous year. If this remains, I believe top local runners would not even bother representing their army units.”

Alex Ong, the Men’s Closed category runner-up, also expressed his surprise at the results. He was the eighth-fastest local but found himself officially placing second in the Men’s Closed category because all the runners ahead of him, except for winner, Mok Ying Ren, were categorised under the Men’s Open because they were representing their army formations. Alex was not representing any army formation at the AHM.

Alex, an undergraduate, who won $1000 in cash and a camera, said: “I knew that there were a few local runners who finished ahead of me. I only realised (they) were not considered under the Closed category after a friend pointed it out to me. It must have been very disappointing for them.”

Appeals to the organiser to recategorise the runners from the respective army formations to the Men’s Closed category proved futile.

Course Distance and Kilometre Markers
The expected 21km — or 21.0975km to be accurate — route turned out to be shorter, according to several runners who had worn GPS-enabled watches during the run.

One of them, the winner of the Men’s Closed category, 5000m national record holder Mok Ying Ren, said his watch reflected the route as 20.4km, short by 700m. Ang Chee Yong, the sixth-fastest local with a net time of 1:15:08.30, also recorded 20.4km on his watch.

Rui Yong, who posted a net time of 1:12:53.85, said: “It was anti-climactic. It was very disappointing to go home without a proper half marathon timing.”

When asked how he knew the race distance was shorter than the half marathon distance, Rui Yong, whose previous personal best was 1:19:46, explained: “I feel that it’s definitely short because judging from the pace (3:30-3:35 min. per kilometre) I was going, it just didn’t make sense for me to go below 1:13.”

While the course distance was one problem, there was also the bugbear of misleading distance markers.

For athletes following a target pace, their split times suggested that the distance markers were inaccurately positioned. Some were off by up to 600 metres.

Gun Times
There are two times in a race — the net time and the gun time. While the net time only starts when the runner crosses the start line, the gun time is measured from the start signal.

The official race results reflect the gun times of almost all runners as over one-and-a-half minutes slower than their net times.

The writers of this article, having started the race up front (third or fourth row), could not have had their gun times over one-and-a-half minutes slower than their net times when they had crossed the start line almost as soon as the starting horn had gone off.

The inaccuracy of the gun times — being the official finish time for the purpose of official results and team scores in accordance with International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) rules — detracts from the achievements of the runners.

No reason has been offered for the difference between the gun and net times even as runners speculate.

Ashley wonders if it might be “some miscommunication between the starter and timer” while Rui Yong wonders if it might be to “make up for the shortfall in the race distance (and) to give a more accurate impression of finish times.”

Course Safety
Parts of the course, even at critical bends in the course, were poorly lit with what appeared to be cyalume sticks.

Fang Jianyong, a runner for 9 Division and who was the tenth local, said: “The route… was without proper lighting (and) definitely poses difficulty for top athletes who are running through the turns at race speed.”

He added there was also an “increased risk of falling” due to the poor lighting of the course, which was sometimes narrow and traversed uneven grounds.

Official Statement from Organising Committee

Men’s Closed (for Singaporeans and Permanent Residents) Results
1. Mok Ying Ren — 1 hour 10 minutes 27.80 seconds (net finish), 1 hour 12 minutes 10.15 seconds (gun finish)
2. Ong Seng Lee Alex — 1:16:24.80, 1:18:08.00
3. Girider Swaminathan — 1:18:11.80, 1:19:52.40
4. Ramesh Palaniandy — 1:21:52.80, 1:23:33.15
5. Ning Wenlong — 1:22:38.30, 1:24:19.50
6. Lim Wei Kiat Kenneth — 1:22:35.05, 1:24:21.45
7. Wong Ken Mun — 1:23:53.00, 1:25:41.00
8. Neo Bok Leng Andy — 1:24:10.85, 1:25:52.30
9. Norman Lim Fangxuan — 1:24:22.25, 1:26:29.65
10. Li Zhongyi Joshua — 1:24:56.20, 1:26:39.50

What the results would look like if they included the local men representing their army formations in the Men’s Open
1. Mok Ying Ren — 1:10:27.80, 1:12:10.15
2. Soh Rui Yong — 1:12:53.85, 1:14:35.40
3. Ashley Liew Wei Yen — 1:12:57.70, 1:14:39.80
4. Devathas Satianathan — 1:14:38.10, 1:16:18.60
5. Colin Tung — 1:14:51.20, 1:16:31.70
6. Ang Chee Yong — 1:15:08.30, 1:16:48.30
7. Chua Chin Yang — 1:16:25.30, 1:18:07.40
8. Ong Seng Lee Alex — 1:16:24.80, 1:18:08.00
9. Ho Ghim Khoon — 1:16:46.50, 1:18:28.05
10. Fang Jian Yong — 1:17:07.80, 1:18:48.75