It was Soh Rui Yong who started this particular marathon and he seems determined to go the distance even though Soh is already the big loser in the defamation suit brought against him by fellow Singapore athlete Ashley Liew.
The $180,000 is the sum of damages that Soh had to pay Ashley Liew over allegations that Soh started making about his then teammate since Singapore hosted the Southeast Asia Games here in 2015.
On Tuesday, Soh threw down the gauntlet in a Facebook post, challenging Liew to donate to sport that $180,000 he won in damages.
It was on March 28, Soh lost his High Court appeal against the decision to award that sum to his former teammate. Justice Valerie Thean also ordered Soh, 30, a two-time Southeast Asian (SEA) Games gold medallist, to pay $18,000 in costs for the appeal hearing.
This comes in addition to about $125,000 in costs and fees that Soh was ordered to pay in February this year for the district court trial.
In a district court in September 2021, Soh had been ordered to pay Liew $180,000 in damages – $120,000 in general damages, and $60,000 in aggravated damages.
Referring to the total amount paid to Liew, $320,000, for his “loss of reputation”, “hurt, distress and embarrassment”, and legal fees, Soh thanked the supporters who had donated to his cause.
He then added: “I now issue this open challenge to Ashley Liew – prove how much sportsmanship you really have.
“A lot of the money I have transferred to you are donations from the public. Give back to Singapore, and Singapore sports.
“Use the entire $180,000 in damages for your ‘loss of reputation’ and ‘hurt, distress and embarrassment’ to set up a fund or a scholarship that benefits the athletes of Singapore.
“Doing a good deed like this will provide everyone with a nice closure to move on from this unfortunate episode.”
However, Soh added, that he wished Liew “all the best for the future” whatever he chose to do with the sum of money awarded him.
Background of the suit
Soh’s legal troubles with Ashley Liew go back to 2015.
That year, Liew received an award for sportsmanship after the 28th South East Asian Games. Liew said his rivals took missed a turn and ended up on the wrong path, which gave him an unfair advantage in the race. Liew then waited for the runners instead of going ahead, an act perceived to have cost him a place in the race.
The runner was widely lauded for this act, and was even mentioned by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the National Day Rally that year, as well as given a special award for sportsmanship at the Singapore Sports Awards the following year.
He also won an international award for sportsmanship, the Pierre de Coubertin World Fair Play Trophy, having been nominated by the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC). He is the first Singaporean to earn that honour.
Soh, who won that 2015 marathon, asserted in several posts on Facebook and Instargam as well as in his own blog, that Liew had not waited for the other runners. After the vent, he wrote in a blog post: “Nobody slowed down to wait – the race was on.”
And he kept up what seemed to be a social media campaign to insist that Liew’s act of fair play was untrue.
In a later account, Soh wrote, “I was third place in that race when we took the wrong turn. When we turned around perhaps 50m into the wrong turn, Ashley was already running in the other direction. We took quite a while to catch up to him (at least one to two minutes), he certainly did not stop or slow down to wait for us.
“Until today, there remains no evidence (video, statements from marshalls at the U-turn etc) of this supposed act of sportsmanship, apart from Ashley’s own claim.”
The argument escalated into legal filings, and Soh called out the SNOC for failing “to remain neutral and investigate on the truth”.
In 2019, the SNOC stood by its decision. That same year, Liew filed a lawsuit against Soh for defamation, seeking a court order for Soh to retract his remarks that implied that he had lied and was undeserving of the sportsmanship award.https://theindependent.sg/runner-soh-rui-yong-loses-appeal-in-defamation-lawsuit-to-pay-ashley-liew-additional-s143000-in-costs/
Afterwards, Soh told his solicitors to file a counterclaim against Liew for defamation.
With the loss of Soh’s appeal in the High Court on Mar 28, most might ahve thought that was the end. But the marathon man seems determined to keep the issue running.
/TISG