SINGAPORE: Soh Rui Yong believes he has grown as a person – and that getting hitched in 2023 has something to do with it.
“When you get married, you can be right, but you’ll still be wrong,” said the man who is arguably Singapore’s greatest marathoner and more indisputably his country’s most outspoken athlete.
“Sometimes … deep in your heart you know you’re not that wrong. But you know that for the sake of cohabitation and existence, that you’ll put your hand up and (say) ‘It’s my fault. I will shoulder the blame’.”
Such a conciliatory, mellow approach might seem, at first glance, to challenge what Soh has come to be known for throughout an athletics career spanning over a decade.
Alongside the colours of three Southeast Asian Games medals and multiple national records there have been controversies including lawsuits, divisive social media posts and exclusions from major meets.
But even after the latest kerfuffle – he was left out of a preliminary list for the upcoming SEA Games – the 34-year-old said he has little, if not nothing, to be sorry about.
“In this life, don’t have regrets … decisions that you made 10 years ago – what’s the point of regretting? You cannot go back and change it,” he told CNA in an hour-long virtual interview from the United Kingdom, where he’s now based.
Soh said it was precisely because of the headlines and incidents that “nobody will ever forget me as a Singapore athlete”.
“And I say that very truthfully, without attempting to sound arrogant.”
He compared himself to medal-winning athletes who he said were quickly forgotten because “there’s really nothing to talk about” until they compete again.
“But my name keeps coming up, and because of that, ironically, we are in this situation where people will remember me for better or for worse.”
And Soh fully intends to keep making memories.
He’s already looking ahead to the 2029 SEA Games hosted in Singapore – he will be 38 by then – and also aims to continue winning the Singapore Marathon national title, at least until he’s 40.
“You won’t see the end of me anytime soon,” he laughed.
