Thursday, September 15, 2016

An Interview With Coach Rameshon -Sub - 2hours 24min 22 sec (Part 1)

Note:

If you are keen and have queries, please contact Coach Rameshon at 9100 4369 or you can email him at m.rameshon@gmail.com or swift.rameshon@gmail.com. Please refer to website http://flexifitness.com.sg (for more information on him and his programmes)

By Saranniya

Sub - 2hr 24min 22sec mission starts now. 


(Left to Right) Evan Chee (3rd), Ruben (2nd) Coach Rameshon, Coach Saravanan and Dr Ansgar Cheng (Champion) for POSB Run 2016


All along, when Coach Rameshon starts to train hard, I used to tell him that he has already achieved everything that he wanted, especially breaking the national record in Singapore and also in qualifying for the Olympics. It is for the youngsters to go for it!

On top of that, he also has a Bachelor of Science Degree from the famed Loughborough University of Technology, where he studied Physical Education and Sports Science (1992-1994). In the Year 2008, he finally finished his Masters in Education at the reputed University of Western Australia. In that year, as a teacher-coach, he was instrumental in winning the National Schools Cross - Country and Track and Field 'A' Division, for under 18 years of age for Hwa Chong Institution (College Section)in his lifetime. Overall, he has 12 National Schools' Cross - Country Titles. He was instrumental in getting 10 titles for National Track and Field Championships for Hwa Chong Institution.

Having said that, I felt that there is no need to prove oneself if one has achieved. He told me that it is important to keep oneself fit and healthy throughout life. Hence, he kept fit all the way until now, and I have evidenced this all the time. During his own time, he will independently do fitness work when needed. Moreover, I have seen him really running and exercising during the personal training sessions. 

At the same time, I was able to come down in weight from 60kg to 42kg by four years, which enabled me to win the second overall position in National School Cross - Country Race for under 17 years of age for girls, last year. our fellow Flexifitness athlete Mariviv Tan came in fourth overall in the 3.5km race. 


Flexifitness Athletes in POSB Run 2016


Recently, a few months back, Coach Rameshon told me that without Ashley Liew (who has a personal best of 2hour 32min for New Orleans Marathon 2015) here, we do not have anyone doing a real sub-40min for 10km. Knowing this, with a team of dedicated athletes like Dr Benny Goh, Jensen, Thow Wee, Andreas, Brian Ye, Ruben, Evan, Yogaraj, Darren, and not forgetting the Dr Ansgar, he worked hard to enable them to do a sub-40min. It was because of this that Coach Rameshon stopped serious running for some time. Currently, as the dream has been realised, when Evan Chee won the third position in Stanchart Marathon 2015 and when Colin came in 4th overall for men open category, he is rethinking again to train hard. Recently, five of our runners ran and did sub - 39min for POSB 10km Run. All top five individual athletes in the race were from Flexifitness. In the race, Dr Ansgar Cheng, 50, from Specialist Dental Group, came in first with a net time of 37min 00sec. It was a very big achievement for us. 

That marked the day of there are many who can do sub-40min easily. As such, Coach Rameshon has finally decided to run not for fitness alone but for performance as well. However,  this time it is not to win anything but to challenge himself with his own time - the 2hr 24min 22sec. After winning the 2008 Stanchart Marathon in Singapore, he was going for the 2hr 24min 22sec time. He did 52min 30sec in Singapore for 15km, one month before the Stanchart Marathon 2009, but he got injured in the process and took three years to get out of it. 

After the successful POSB race, where our top 8 runners were positioned in top 14, with four ladies coming in top 13 in the women open category, plus five kids getting overall top 8 positions in the POSB Run 2016, Coach Rameshon told me that it is fun to challenge the 2hr 24min 22sec which he missed out earlier on. 

I have given an interview and have got his exhaustive and detailed answers. For the benefit of readers, I will put it up soon. So, watch for it!


Note:

By Narayanan
Rameshon has taught in Hwa Chong Institution, plus several schools, and Republic Polytechnic as well. He has won many accolades and he was awarded Merit Award for 1991 marathon performance in breaking the national record of Singapore, at that time. He has made 22 male athletes do a marathon in sub-3hrs. He has made 7 female runners do sub-4 hours for the marathon, as well. He was inducted to the ‘Roll of Honour’  by the then College of Physical Education, organised by Singapore Olympic Academy, in 1998, for breaking the National record repeatedly 4 times, till he did 2hr 24min 22sec).


He also has a Coaching group and he trains them on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7pm at Botanic Gardens. Those interested can call him at 91004369 for coaching assistance, to improve performance. There is also personal training that he does for many in a week. You can e-mail him at swift.rameshon@gmail.com.

Coach Rameshon And His Revisit of Sub-2hr 24min 22sec Marathon Challenge.

By Saranniya

Team Flexifitness - Cheering Group for Dr Ansgar Cheng's Prize Giving Ceremony for coming in as the champion in 5km Men Masters in 17min 39sec. 

"Why can't" - A favourite saying of Dr Ansgar Cheng

Revisit of aiming for sub-2hour 24min 22sec, challenging with own time. 

My intention of writing this is to state my wonder whether Coach Rameshon, 51, has ever tried thinking of doing a time of 2hr 24min 22sec, still currently the Singapore National Record, again.

The first time he broke the record was in year 1990, in Hong Kong Marathon, where he came in 5th overall, with a time of 2hr 31min and won a cash prize of $3000.

Coach Rameshon has ran 2hours and 30min and below, five times- 2hr 30min (California Rim Marathon 1990), 2hr 29min (Flora London International Marathon 1993, April). 2hr 28min (Berlin International Marathon, 1993, Sept), 2hr 29min (SEA Games first qualifier,1995, Feb, and the SEA Games route was verified by the Thailand officials to go ahead to use it for SEA Games) and in the same Chiangmai, Thailand, he did a time of 2hr 24min 22sec, smashing the national record, yet again.

After seeing this, I have asked him of any future running pursuits. He said," Many have asked me to run again and they are keen to see me run, to the point that they want to see how fast I can run". He told me that at forty, in the past, he wanted to win the Stanchart Marathon, but it evaded him. In year 2007, his runner by the name of Daniel Ling won the Stanchart Marathon in 2hr 46min, defeating triple year winner Elangovan Ganesan. Mr Rameshon ended second position.

In year 2008, Mr Rameshon ran and did 2hr 49min in Stanchart Marathon in Singapore and came in as the champion of the race. His runner Daniel Ling was second and Dr Ben Tan, whom he was training was third (2hr 56min), the first Singaporean Doctor to run sub-3hour for a marathon. 

Coach Rameshon told me that in year 2009, he wanted to do a sub-2hr 40min, and then attempt to do a sub - 2hr 30min and aim to do a sub- 2hr 24min, but this evaded him as he got injured due to an injury related to the knee. In that year, Dr Benny Goh was third while Ashley Liew was first runner up for the Stanchart race that year.

"Adidas was supporting me to do a sub-2hr 24min 22sec and I was hoping to do in year 2010 to 2012. My plan failed as I kept getting injuries. "

To my question, recently on," Is there any possibility of going near or even breaking the time of 2hr 24min 22sec again" , He said, " Why not!" "Anything is possible". "One must believe in miracles and it is ok to go for it." " If one can get it is good, if I don't, it is ok and the challenge is not with the youngsters but with myself." I just need to keep away from injuries."

To the question of when he is going to attempt, he said, it starts now. "It is me against myself, I have done it in the past and with the empowered present informed knowledge of preventing injuries, diet and being aware of the new training methodology and training techniques to get faster, I may get it and it is always a thrill to challenge oneself". "Infact, the challenge starts from today."

Picture 1 - (Left to Right) It was Teamwork - Daniel Ling(2nd), Rameshon (1st) and Dr Benedict Tan (3rd) for Stanchart Marathon 2008, in Singapore





http://flexifitness.com.sg/