SINGAPORE — The race between national distance runners Mok Ying Ren and Soh Rui Yong to be Singapore’s first male marathoner to qualify for the 2016 Olympics is hotting up following Mok’s latest achievement in the half marathon.

In a strong sign that he has finally put his injury woes of the past two years behind him, Mok clocked 1hr 7min 8s at the Arizona Rock ‘N’ Roll Half Marathon today (Jan 18) to finish 13th overall, to claim back the national mark from his 24-year-old rival, Soh, the 2015 SEA Games champion.

The previous national mark of 1hr 7min 21s had been set by Soh at the San Jose Rock ‘N’ Roll Half Marathon last September, which erased 2013 SEA Games champion Mok’s 1hr 7min 29s effort at the 2014 Christchurch Marathon.

The 27-year-old Mok — whose personal best time is 2hr 26min 30s set at the 2013 Gold Coast Marathon — had also competed in the San Jose meet back then, clocking 1hr 8min 22s.

“It has been a challenging past few years. I had a shin injury after setting the half-marathon national record at Christchurch in June 2014,” said Mok who subsequently withdrew from the Commonwealth Games that year as well as last June’s SEA Games because of injury. He also injured his eye in a freak accident three months ago.

“Since then, I have just been plagued with more injuries and went through a drought of good performances. So setting a new record now is definitely a good confidence booster for my quest to qualify for Rio.”

In fact, Mok said he is at his “best ever” form now, with about seven months to go to Rio. Attributing it to a mindset change, he told TODAY that he is more “relaxed and confident” in his running now, compared with the past when he pushed himself too hard. That resulted in much frustration as well as injuries.

In fact, upon the advice of his Australian coach Lee Troop, a three-time Olympian, Mok also did not run with a GPS watch — which tracks a runner’s pace and distance — today so as to take pressure off himself.

“I think my form is as good as it has ever been,” he said.

“I am just going to focus on building up from this performance. In the past, every time I set a record, I usually get injured, and there was no continuity for the last few years. But now, I know how to plan my training better. I don’t want to be over-confident, but I hope to meet the qualifying mark soon.”

According to IAAF regulations, each country is allowed to send three runners to the marathon at the Olympics. However, it is a race against time for both Mok and Soh as the deadline for qualification is
July 11. Both men need to shave about 7min off their personal best (PB) times to meet the 2hr 19min qualifying time. Soh’s PB is 2hr 26min 1s, which he clocked at the 2014 California International Marathon.

Both are also putting their careers on hold while they do so. Mok, an orthopaedic surgery resident at the National University Health System, has taken a year off to train for the Olympics.  He will return to work in July and will juggle his work with training, should he qualify.

Meanwhile, Soh, who graduated from the University of Oregon last month, has decided to train full-time. According to the duo, they are enjoying the rivalry between them. “With us breaking each other’s records, it is always a good thing,” said Mok. “It is healthy competition, and pushes me to strive (for the better) too.

Soh, who will head to Kenya for training on Feb 6, agreed.

“I think it is good because, for a very long time, we haven’t had a Singaporean going under 70min (for the half marathon),” he said. “I don’t think one of us would have been as good now without the other. When I look at a performance like that and see what he can do, I think maybe I can do as well or better. That’s the way I see it. Hopefully, our rivalry will get both of us to the Olympics.”

Now that he has hunted down Soh’s half-marathon mark, Mok will now become the hunted this Saturday as Soh will be competing in the men’s 5,000m at the Singapore Athletics Track and Field Series, and will have Mok’s national record of 14min 51.09 in his sights.