SINGAPORE: After national marathoner, Soh Rui Yong’s appeal to be included in Team Singapore’s contingent for the upcoming Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, from Sep 23 to Oct 8, was rejected by the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC), Mr Yee Jenn Jong, former Workers’ Party NCMP, weighed in on the matter with a Facebook post.

“Just let sports people do their work and stop stalking them on social media. Let him who has no sin cast the first stone. So tired of such petty bans, over social media comments which most people would have missed out anyway if not for some on the throne casting judgements.

I have no clue what the offending comments even are. We don’t need them to be saints, just athletes,” wrote Mr Yee on June 9, posting a link to a Straits Times report on Soh’s exclusion.

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The long-distance runner holds national records in four separate races, the 5,000 meters, 10,000 meters, half-marathon, and marathon. Most recently, he bagged the silver in the 10,000-metre final and set a new national record of 31:10.70 at the SEA Games in Cambodia, the first Singaporean to ever do so.

He also won back-to-back gold medals for the 2015 and 2017 SEA Games marathons.

The appeals committee of the SNOC met early last week to discuss Soh’s nomination to the Asian Games continent, which Singapore Athletics had put forth.

However, the committee said that the runner “failed to honour commitments which he had provided to the SNOC, including on occasions following his participation at the Cambodia 2023 SEA Games.”

A spokesman for the SNOC also said that the runner continued to make “disparaging and derisive remarks about others in the public domain” and “the committee is not satisfied that he has changed for the better to earn selection for the Asian Games.”

Several commenters on Mr Yee’s post appear to agree with him.

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