Shaun Goh breaks 10km road national record
Shaun Goh’s first national record – in the 10km road race at the Run Prix in Albert Park, Melbourne, on Sept 22 – not only came as a great relief but also a pleasant surprise.
The 27-year-old national runner achieved his goal in commanding fashion, slashing a hefty 37 seconds off Soh Rui Yong’s previous road mark of 31min 37sec, set in Valencia in 2023.
Goh placed 20th out of a field of 188 with his 31:00 effort as he improved on his previous personal best by a massive 52sec, which he clocked at the Southern Cross University 10km run during the Gold Coast Marathon on July 7.
“It feels really good, the first one always feels special,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about this one for a while, and I felt like my fitness was within range this year.
“I did try to go for it at the Gold Coast in July, and I thought I was there, but wasn’t able to execute well. So today was my second shot, and I’m really glad we got it done and it was a bit of a relief.
“At the same time, I’m really happy with how much I was able to break it by (37sec) and that was unexpected.”
Goh felt the conditions in Melbourne helped with his history-making run, unlike the weather on the Gold Coast. He said: “In Australia, it’s known to be quite windy and today was the same, but it was not as bad as (it was) in Gold Coast. We were fortunate that the weather was in our favour.”
He attributed his strong form to consistent training in 2024, as he was able to go for nine to 10 training runs a week, while juggling his job as an information security analyst.
“Health and fitness-wise, everything was going right and I reached the race feeling good,” he added. “At the Gold Coast, the lead-up wasn’t as good, I fell sick prior to that race, and it was a bit of an interruption to my training.”
With a first national mark, Goh is setting his sights on winning a medal at the 2025 SEA Games in Thailand. “I really hope to go there to actually compete, because the last time when I went, I was just as happy to be there to participate. But now I really want to be in a position where I’m there to compete for medals and that’s the ultimate goal.”
He made his SEA Games debut in Cambodia in 2023 but finished last in the 10,000m. Rikki Simbolon of Indonesia won gold in 31:08.85, with Soh second in a national record of 31:10.70.
Soh said of Goh’s achievement: “Congratulations to Shaun for a huge breakthrough performance... As a testament to his perseverance, he put in 10 weeks of hard training and has now surpassed that record by a huge margin.”
Goh’s next race is the Valencia Half Marathon in October, when he will be going with Soh before defending his national half-marathon title at the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon on Dec 1.
Meanwhile, Soh, 33, bettered the mile road national mark on Sept 21 with a 4:30 time (pending confirmation) at the Westminster Mile in London. On Sept 13 he had clocked 15:08 to rewrite his own 5km road national record.
On his mile record, he said: “In the mile... the first kilometre was run in 2:38. My body was filled with lactate acid and I felt a bear had jumped on my back all of a sudden so it was a long, progressively harder struggle to the end. But I think my base training and the marathon training cycles I did earlier this year allowed me to soldier on despite the pain. Was rewarded with a mile national record!”
Singapore Athletics general manager Shalindran Sathiyanesan said: “Rui Yong and Shaun’s performances mark the ninth and 10th long-distance national records shattered this year.
“Notably, both the men and women’s 10km road records now surpass the 10,000m track records, a strong indicator that more milestones are on the horizon. Our athletics scene is flourishing across all event groups, and the distance events are no exception.”
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