SINGAPORE: Singapore national track and field athlete Goh Chui Ling etched her name into the records book as she shattered Yvonne Danson’s 27-year-old 5,000m national record.
Goh set a new national record during the 11th Münchner Abendsportfest in Munich, Germany, finishing in second place with a time of 17 minutes 33.73 seconds.
Goh, a multiple Southeast Asian (SEA) Games medallist, finally felt relieved as she exorcised the demons of her previous heart-wrenching close calls.
The 31-year-old can now showcase the hard work of her unwavering resolve and unrelenting passion and reached the elusive mark that had tantalisingly hovered just beyond her grasp for far too long.
“The race was quite controlled because the other girl in the race had a pacer.
It actually felt quite relieving to break the national record as it has been in the legs since I recorded my National Best for the 5km Road, which is still close to 20 seconds faster.
It has been a season of near misses for both the 5000m and 10,000m, so it’s great to get that breakthrough and keep it going for the remainder of this season!” expressed a joyful Goh, who narrowly missed out on breaking the national 5,000m record two weeks ago in Switzerland (17 min 36.83 sec).
The national 5,000m record, held by Danson since 1997, has stood the test of time.
Danson, who received her Singapore citizenship in 1995, made history a year later by becoming the nation’s first female Olympic marathon runner at the 1996 Atlanta Games at 37.
Danson’s track and field career was marked by numerous achievements, including winning the silver and bronze medals as she set the national records for the marathon (2 hour 34 min 41 sec) and 10,000m (36 min 27.39 sec), during the SEA Games in Thailand in 1995.
However, Danson’s long-standing national record in the 10,000m event (36 min 27.39 sec) is now precariously on the brink of being surpassed, as Goh’s relentless pursuit of excellence has seen her inch tantalisingly close to the mark.
Her current personal best time is 36 min 29.75 sec.
Chee Swee Lee’s decade-long national 800m record is also within touching distance by Goh, with the former setting a record time of 2 min 07.4 sec in 1976 while the latter’s personal best is currently 2 min 07.79 sec.
Goh currently has three bronze medals and a silver medal from two SEA Games outings.
At the 31st SEA Games, held in 2022 in Vietnam, she came in third place in the 1,500m and 10,000m events, with timings of 4 min 33.41 sec and 39 min 22.26 sec, respectively.
However, the Southeast Asian Sports Council later announced that her medal in the 1,500m event would be upgraded to bronze after the second-placed athlete, Khuat Phuong Anh (Vietnam), was stripped of her medal due to a doping incident.
At the subsequent SEA Games held the following year in Cambodia, Goh clinched bronze medals in the 800m and 1,500m events.
In the 800m race, she finished in third spot with a time of 2 min 09.15 sec, while in the 1,500m event, she set a new national record of 4 min 26.33 seconds.
According to the Singapore Athletics Association, Goh currently has eight national records and national bests—1,500m, 2,400m, 3,000m, 5,000m, 5km Road, 10km Road, 4 x 400m, and 4 x 400m Mixed.