Untold Stories of 10km, Half-Marathon Road Racing

Note:

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

By Ms Tan

Picture 1 - Running shots of Mr Rameshon from the POSB Run 2018

After reading a number of past articles, local athletics books, websites, and also interviewing athletes, I realised that it will be good to share with people some of the untold stories, of our own Singapore distance runners, particularly in road racing. For instance, in POSB Race 2018, this year, an elite Kenyan runner ran and won the 10km race in 32min 22sec, for Men Open category, where the quality of the race was good. The second male winner was also a non-Singaporean, a Gurkha.

Having interviewed Mr Rameshon, he showed me a diary with 1995 training book, and I saw his Singapore best time was 32min 22sec where he beat one of the most formidable Malaysian runner called Ramesh, personal best for 2.4km was 6min 56sec, who was undisputed in Singapore soil, in winning a race. Yvonne Danson, another top runner and current marathon national record holder for women open category, unsatisfied, remeasured the 10km route again and told that actually distance was 10.3km. The story of the race was inspiring to hear and I shall write in detail in the upcoming blog post.

There are other past unknown heroes like Dr Bala, Khoo Chin Poo, Balasundram, Ernest Wong, and Tan Choon Ghee. It is good for people to know, as the latter can trace back the history of distance running to have the knowledge and also to make running a more worthwhile pursuit.

It is, in fact, good to know the summarised history of half-marathon best timing ever, especially in road racing, as people do need to know as they may get confused.

It is only now that people know that Dr Bala is the fastest ever Singaporean for 10km for road and that Mr Rameshon is the second-fastest ever. In half–marathon time, Mr Rameshon time has done 1hr 04min in Johore, the best timing ever by a local until now for half marathon. I shall be writing a lot of these unsung heroes for the benefit of fellow Singaporeans. So, watch out 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 the 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.