Orange Room Organises Its First Physical Run Race Post-Circuit Breaker With Leaderboard
The Leaderboard is a hybrid race format with monthly virtual challenges that culminated in a 5km Grand Finale Run at the Singapore Sports Hub
The top 30 male and female runners from the competitive virtual challenge from December to March earned entry to the Leaderboard 5km Finale Run
Foo Gen Lin and Vanja Cnops won the overall male and female titles respectively
Singapore, 5 April 2021 – After seven months of planning and preparation, Orange Room was raring to go with its first physical run race in Singapore since the Circuit Breaker was imposed a year ago. The early morning thunderstorm and the threat of lightning however, nearly thwarted these plans. Fortunately, the skies cleared up after a 90-minute delay and the race was good to start.
Working with Sport Singapore and the Singapore Sports Hub, safety measures were implemented to allow this race to happen. Participants were split into waves of eight for flag-off, with a five-minute gap between each wave. Within each wave, the runners were further split into two groups of four with a 10-second gap in between. Also, no spectators were allowed and there was no baggage deposit.
Topping the male category with a time of 15 minutes and 16.307 seconds was Foo Gen Lin, who won the February qualifiers. “My racing goal for this year is to qualify for the Southeast Asian Games in the Duathlon or Triathlon. Prior to this Leaderboard race, I was a bit fatigued from the multiple time trials and qualifying races so I honestly didn’t have much expectation. My goal was to hit a low-16 minutes and anything more was a bonus.
“My race went really well despite the delayed start due to the weather conditions. Marcus (overall second male) went out guns blazing for the first 2km but I kept my cool and hung on tight. He was the race favourite given his superb qualifying time, but I knew I had a chance for a good time if I hung on to him without blowing up. The legs felt really good after the halfway mark and I just kept on pushing harder towards the end. It feels good to be back on the podium again,” said the 38-year-old orthopaedic sports surgeon
Sealing the women’s title was Vanja Cnops from Belgium, with a time of 17 minutes and 38.047 seconds. “When the pandemic first hit, it felt good to have more time to run but as it dragged on, I found it harder to find the motivation. I’m happy that there are now races so I can have something to focus on.
“The race went quite well; I was following two ladies in my wave and tried to keep my pace before accelerating at the end. I came into the race to do what I can. I wasn’t really expecting to win as there were two ladies who had fastest qualifying timings than I did, so I’m very happy that I won!”
Elvin Ting, managing director for Orange Room, added, “It feels great to see our first physical event in over a year come to fruition. It nearly didn’t happen because of poor weather conditions but I’m glad we managed to pull through. I hope everyone enjoyed themselves and we are happy to have done something for the community. I hope this is the start of many more events to come!”
When Singapore entered Phase 2 last year, Leaderboard was launched with its virtual component where participants clocked a 5km run in their own time and place. Runners then submitted their timings via fitness apps and entries are uploaded to a leaderboard with participants ranked by completion time.
With these rankings, the top 30 male and female runners of each month from December 2020 to March 2021 earned entry to the physical event – the 5km Finale Run held on 4 April at the Singapore Sports Hub.
