Story by Colin Tung/Red Sports

Mok shadows Barry Lynch of Australia, whom he later overtakes and beats by 18 seconds. (Photo courtesy of Mok Ying Ren)

Mok shadows Barry Lynch of Australia, whom he later overtakes and beats by 18 seconds. (Photo courtesy of Mok Ying Ren)

 

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Gold Coast, Australia, Sunday, July 7, 2013 — After an injury-plagued six months between 2011 and 2012, which saw him relinquish his tag as the top local runner in both the Army Half Marathon and Singapore Marathon last year, Mok’s return to form as Singapore’s top distance runner is well and truly complete.

On the back of a half marathon personal best of 1 hour 9 minutes 24 seconds last month in New Zealand, he ran 2 hours 26 minutes 30 seconds (gun time) at the Gold Coast Marathon this morning to finish seventh in an international field of elite runners topped by amateur civil servant-marathoner Yuki Kawauchi. The Japanese cult hero, World Championships-bound in the marathon next month, won the race in 2:10:01.

Mok qualified for December’s Southeast Asian (SEA) Games with his new personal best — a four-second improvement on his previous best from the 2011 Christchurch Airport Marathon.

“My objective for this race was to qualify for the 27th SEA Games in Myanmar [this year] and I am very happy to have achieved that,” said the 2007 SEA Games gold medallist in the triathlon, before he turned his focus to running. “Over the next few months, I hope to take my training to a different level and, hopefully, bring back the gold medal in December.”

Not content with merely meeting the qualifying time for the SEA Games, which is set at the bronze medal mark from the previous Games by the Singapore Athletic Association, Mok ran a time that bettered even the 2:27:45 which won gold in Palembang.

The 25-year-old, who celebrated his birthday yesterday, however, once again came just short of the 17-year-old national record of 2:24:22 set by Murugiah Rameshon.

Mok was just under a minute outside of national record pace as late as the 35km mark. With seven kilometres to go, that meant Mok had to run about seven seconds faster than the national record pace of 3 minutes 25 seconds per kilometre to add a second national record to his name (which perches alongside the 5000m national record), but it proved too much to ask for.

Mok said: “I followed the top Ethiopians to half way in 1:12:50 so that’s slightly off (national record pace which would translate to 1:12:11 at the same point). But it was [still] possible to catch it.”

That optimism soon met a harsher reality as Mok explained why his national record attempt faded.

He said: “Strong headwinds in the last 5km and running solo in the last 10km.”

The Tan Tock Seng Hospital emergency department doctor, who this year announced plans to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics in the marathon, however, expressed satisfaction with his performance and maintained his long-term view: “My result at the Gold Coast Airport Marathon serves to reaffirm my belief and desire to qualify for the marathon at the Rio Olympics in 2016.”

Ashley Liew, the top local marathoner at the 2012 Singapore Marathon, finished as the 17th man and 21st overall in a time of 2:35:47.

In the half marathon, Melvin Wong was the top Singaporean, placing as the 78th man and 87th overall in a time of 1:17:59.