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Origins of the Marathon
The full marathon, a 42.195 kilometre (km) road race, holds a special draw for many. The race was born at the inaugural 1896 modern Olympics in Athens, to mark the epic 25-mile journey by a Greek messenger from the coastal plain of Marathon to Athens. The messenger, Phidippides, was delivering the news of the Greek victory over the Persians in 490 b.c. He apparently collapsed and died after delivering the news, but the marathon lives on.
 The race distance varied until 1921, when the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) decided to set the 42.195 km distance of the 1908 London Olympics as the standard distance for all marathon races. The 1924 Paris Olympics marathon course was thus the first race officially contested in the current standard distance.
In Singapore, the first full-length marathon was held in 1982 with 2,832 entrants for the 42.195 km race. Raymond Crabb of the United Kingdom and Winnie Ng from Hongkong were the overall men’s and women’s winners respectively. Goh Gam Seng and Lim Hui Pheng won the local men and women’s categories.
In 1984, the Singapore International Marathon was inaugurated and installed as a biennial international marathon. In 1985, Mobil, an oil company, launched the Mobil Marathon, which was held in the years alternating with the Singapore International Marathon and dedicated to the local running community.
In 2002, the Singapore Marathon became the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon, and continues to be an annual event attracting both international and local participants. Attendance at the marathon has increased exponentially from its early years, with a record number of 50,000 runners taking to the streets in 2008. Of these 15,000 ran the full marathon. The current course record is 2:13:01, by Luke Kibet of Kenya. The Singapore National record holders for the marathon are M Rameshon (1995, Men, 2:24:22) and Yvonne Danson (1995, Women, 2:34:41). Since 2007, the Sundown Marathon, which starts at midnight, was added to the running calendar. |
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