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Soh Rui Yong Excluded from SEA Games Again Despite Being 1 of the Best Runners

2022-02-18 , 10:40 am

The stage for the 2022 SEA Games is set to occur in Hanoi, Vietnam, but the two-time marathon champion Soh Rui Yong will not be among the attending athletes once again.

Despite meeting the qualification mark for two events for the regional meeting—which is to secure one of top three positions at said events—, the 30-year-old runner’s name was not among the 330 athletes who were given permission in participate in the biennial competition that was sent out by the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) in a media statement on Wednesday (16 Feb).

Soh’s current predicament is no different from the 2019 SEA Games in the Philippines, where he had not been selected in spite of meeting the qualifications.

SNOC: Soh Has Fallen Short of Standards

In this instance, the 12-strong selection committee for the Hanoi Games was headed by SNOC President Tan Chan-Jin, Vice-Presidents Juliana Seow and Ben Tan; Honorary Treasurer Lee Wung Yew; Cycling Federation President Hing Siong Cheng; Basket Association of Singapore President Kok KOON Teck; Singapore Gymnastics President Patrick Liew; SNOC’s Athletes’ Commission Chairman Mark Chay,; Sport Singapore Chief Executive Officer Lim Teck Yin, Education Minister Tan Chen Kee, Lawyer Lau Kok Kong, and billionaire Chairman of Professional Football Club Lion City Sailors Forrest Li.

The last five listed names were appointed to the membership of the committee by invitation of the existing members.

When The Straits Times asked SNOC about the omission of Soh Rui Yong’s name, an SNOC spokesperson stated that its selection criteria “has been well-publicised and communicated” to all national sports associations since 2020.

“Such criteria include meeting objective qualifying standards, as well as non-performance related standards and qualities such as attitude and behaviour towards coaches, fellow athletes and officials (whether in relation to sporting matters or otherwise), conduct and character which may affect the reputation, image, values or best interests of the athlete or the sport, and the ability to demonstrate team spirit and work well with teammates and officials.”

Afterwards, SNOC directly said that the SNOC had rejected Singapore Athletics’ (SA) nomination for Soh because his general conduct “fell short of the standards of attitude and behaviour the SNOC expects of and holds its athletes to”.

If the words sound a little familiar, that’s because the SNOC gave the same pretext for rejecting Soh’s participation in the 2019 SEA Games.

The SNOC spokesman then added that the marathon runner has not tried to make any amends, rectify or apologise for his conduct and behaviour. On the contrary, Soh has only continued to persistently challenge, mock, threaten and/or disrespect the organisations and individuals, of which include the SNOC.

The spokesman’s final words, he uttered, “The SNOC views such conduct and behaviour as unbecoming of an athlete that wishes to be selected to represent his country at major Games, and as contrary to the aforesaid requirement of the Olympic Charter.”

In short, the main reason behind Soh’s exclusion is because of his attitude problems, again.

Soh’s Response and Disagreement

Following the media statement and spokesperson’s speech, Soh took to Facebook on the same day (16 Feb) to address his non-selection in the SEA Games (Again).

The 30-year-old runner, who is currently studying Law in London, first acknowledged the fact he had been excluded from the list of participating athletes in the SEA Games again, even when he had broken the national record with his 2:22:59 run, which is 10 minutes faster than the qualifying mark that SNOC had established.

Soh bluntly lists his achievements in the same paragraph, where he had won 2 gold medals in the SEA Game Marathons that he had attended in 2015 and 2017.

He goes on to refute SNOC’s assertion that he has made no efforts to make amends with them, pointing out that he had met with the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong in January, who had even offered to “help mediate (the) situation”.

Soh writes: “I will make it clear here, for SNOC and for everyone else. As far as I’m concerned, any disputes in the past are long water under bridge for me. I’m happy to make amends and resolve matters, but it takes two hands to clap.

“On my part, apologies for any inconveniences that have arisen from my past actions and apologises that Singapore will once again miss out on a marathon gold medal as things stand. Good luck to the rest of the team competing in Vietnam.”

On Objective Qualification Standards

Although Soh’s Facebook post should be taken with a grain of salt—because the saltiness is definitely present, especially in the last paragraph—he’s not wrong when he said that he has qualified with his record-breaking times.

With a timing of 31 mins 28.67 seconds for the 10,000m in the Singapore Athletics All Comers 5 Track Meet in Nov 2021, and a timing of 2 hours 22:59 minutes at the Valencia Marathon, he has broken Singapore’s national records for both events, thereby qualifying for the Asian Games Marathon.

And that is to say nothing of how he is the current national record holder for the 5,000m and half-marathon in Singapore as well.

Soh might have an ego, but it’s not unfounded.

If Singapore wanted an honest chance at gaining the gold medal for those events, Soh Rui Yong might have been the crucial ticket, objectively speaking.

Besides Soh Rui Yong, there are two notable runners in the list of Singaporean Olympic athletes, namely 21-year-old Ethan Yan who is the third quickest in Singapore, and Jeevaneesh Soundararajah, who had recently set a new national record for the 2.4km run with a timing of 6 mins 52.97 seconds.

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Past Transgressions and Current Events

Putting aside Soh’s stellar running record, it isn’t a secret that Soh has clashed with both Singapore Athletics (SA) and the SNOC numerous times over the past few years.

For instance, in the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games, Soh had been given a formal warning from the SNOC over a breach of regulations regarding the promotion of personal sponsors on social media, since it was supposed be a “blackout period”.

In terms of cash prizes, athletes are expected to donate 20% of their winnings to their national associations for the training and facilities, which Soh had protested.

He had also cut holes in his race vest before his victorious race in Malaysia, which purportedly peeved the sponsor 2XU, who later terminated its sponsorship with SA four months later.

In April 2018, SNOC had given Soh a legal letter, demanding that he retract the false allegations he laid against his fellow Singaporean marathoner Ashley Liew regarding his act of sportsmanship in the 2015 SEA Games.

For these allegations, Ashley Liew had filed a defamation lawsuit against Soh, which he subsequently lost and was ordered by the court to pay $180,000 for the damages caused.

This case is currently under appeal.

In Aug 2019, Soh had mocked the SNOC on his own blog, with the post’s title being “SNOC has admitted to using irrelevant, subjective & extraneous criteria in 2019 SEA Games selection”.

As of 2021 and 2022, he had filed a defamation lawsuit against Syed Abul Malik, the former Singapore Athlete Association Executive Director, which is currently ongoing.

If we were to talk about sportsmanship, respect for the national associations, organisations, and individuals, then Soh’s previous behavioural track record definitely doesn’t meet the standards.

Moreover, it should be noted that no one has ever protested against the clause that national athletes had implicit standards to uphold themselves to, since they are considered the representative symbols of their country in the sports that they are participating in.

Making Amends?

In terms of making amends, it’s not certain what has happened behind the scenes, besides Soh’s open admission that he had seen Mr Edwin Tong to discuss the matter.

However, in terms of what Goodyfeed has noticed, the blog posts that Soh had previously published mocking either SA or SNOC have already been taken down in late January this year, which includes the Writs of Summons he had served to Mr Malik.

Moreover, in the current defamation lawsuit, Soh had offered to drop the lawsuit because he believes that it wasn’t good for the sport or their reputations, except it was rejected by Mr Malik’s defence lawyer.

With regards to working on his general sportsmanship, he has been actively encouraging more runners, like issuing a challenge to all Singaporeans to break the sub-7 timing, and Soh promised he would give $700 and 700 bottles of Pocari Sweat to anyone who succeeded.

When Soundararajah managed the feat and even surpassed Soh in the 2.4km run, Soh had lived up to his words.

Alas, it does seem that it will take a longer period of time for the previously burnt bridge to mend, especially since the metaphorical damages had been piling on for years only to be re-ignited every time the Olympic athlete selections comes into play.

Meanwhile, the top national marathoner will be focusing on his law degree in the University College London as the Hanoi Games fly by him.