Are we really psychos? Or is somebody else a dictator? Let's find out........

In this post, I will personally pen a written reply to a facebook reply by Soh Ruiyong on my facebook page to British running stalwarts, Jon, Ben and Stuart, on the April 11th. Excerpt of the message is reproduced below so that my readers may follow the points I subsequently bring forth.

"Soh Rui Yong Ben Pickford, Stu Haynes Jon Cheal, I urge you to waste no more time on anyone named Joe KS, or "MG"... They are all the same person. He has created multiple accounts (there are more... easy to spot - dodgy profile pictures and info) to make it sound like he has supporters. 

Once upon a time, this 11min 3000m steeplechaser was my teammate in Hwa Chong Institution. He used to believe he could make the 2005 SEA games. He didn't, what happened along the way I don't know, but eventually he went full psycho in shooting down all the distance runners who happen to stand out in Singapore.

Please go on with your lives, and let him continue typing this crap from his mum's basement.

As for guys like "R", you can continue slagging off and setting limits on other runners all you want. It says a lot more about your own bitter/jealous character than it does about them. And it's embarassing that some of our own singaporeans like you choose to shoot down our own sportsmen's ambitions rather than support them. Last I checked, a marathon is 42.195km, not 10km or 21.1km. So 42.195km is the distance I'm training for."

" "LT"--- realistic goals and work towards them gradually? so are you saying Rui Yong all these years putting in his hardwork during his RI/RJC track/xcountry days are non-realistic? He did work hard too like any other young talents out there in SG. Let's say he started off 5 years ago then we might be able to imply he is unrealistic. But in this case? No. To me you're just here to pin him down indirectly, I'm here to speak upfront to you. The things you promised people and not delivered in the past , owes people money and not paid up. Alot of people are aware of what's going on and also chose not to talk about it. So do you wanna make it into a discussion like Joe KS do? Tell me about it.

Forgot to mention if we see F1 top runners , are not trained from scratch by you. sorry to say that , that's a fact i guess"

Dear Soh Rui Yong, I have waited for some time to allow some dust to settle before I give you a final word here in the presence of the president of SA Mr Tang, Head of Long distance Ghana Segaran, your mentor James Wong Tuck Yim, and reputable coaches Joe Goh and Bay Hansen. I apologize to you guys for my long overdue reply. My apologies also to the 3 estimated British gentlemen Ben Pickford, Jon Cheal and Stuart Haynes, for the cryptic and unseemly behavior of my fellow countryman Soh Rui Yong who had tagged you people looking to get a reply in one of my facebook posts. My silence on this matter has officially ended, and on behalf of his childish and obnoxious misdemeanors on social media and/or in real-life, I sincerely apologize.

Ruiyong, I hope you do not get yourself into serious trouble shooting down what is innocent bystanders like this chap you are talking about here, just because he happened to be one of your critics as well. NOBODY IS HIM EXCEPT HIM, please stop all your tactical name-shaming and superficial blame-game, because we know you are using these as a tablecloth to hide every of your moral, ethical and professional culpabilities--faults and weaknesses, so as to also conveniently dissuade anyone else in the future in Singapore from discussing and/or exposing serious issues of principle in your overall personal and sports conduct.

If this chap you speak of---"MG", means so much to you that you have to honor him time and again everywhere on facebook, he probably must have been kind enough to also point out all that is wrong with your personal/social-media grooming and the overall conduct of your sports career, otherwise why would you be so ever compelled to unconsciously hand him dignity as such?!!

One final time my dear friend, in case it didn’t register in your mind---->>Please do not allow your weird and sickly preoccupation with this chap of yours distract from the issues at hand that I have presented in all my blogposts---namely, your very unrealistic distance targets, your slow pbs at the 5k, 10k and HM compared to what is required to run 2:18:xx, your obnoxious and egotistical bragging and subsequently justifying these things as excusable as long as you seem to be doing the country proud?! Time and again, we are shocked and incoherent at how basic humility and teachability can so easily elude such a finely educated lad like yourself?! Ask any of the reasonable and knowledgeable officials and coaches around Singapore yourself, and even Ben, Jon and Stuart(assuming they can remain impartial!), and see if more than a couple have rave reviews about your overall conduct in terms of basic professional ethics and morals in the past 6-9 months.

Why do you make it seem like I and my team are in need of supporters, or in need of public recognition as perhaps those at a TV awards ceremony? Our lives and identities are big and strong enough to have no need of such support in morale. FYI-----some of us are flying corporate/military executives, humble and highly experienced specialist distance coaches, and also important stewards of young lives, and combined with the persistence, rigor and passion of our written analysis and arguments, don’t you think we serve a higher purpose or calling than simply trying to boost local morale figures, or worst, try to seem to oppress everybody into buying and possessing only our views about you and your career. But that is ironically what you are trying to achieve with all your tactical name-shame and dishonor. You try so hard to render invalid every of those people who dares to criticize or stand up to your views and actions, but not knowing that in doing so you might have implicitly or explicitly rendered yourself one, because a real solid professional athlete with solid ethics and morals will let their legs do the talking, every single time.

At the very least, learn to respect people's name, and not call it a joke(s), and learn to respect people's decision(in this case mine) not to reveal more details about myself and my team in the sense that we are whistleblowers trying to achieve the full range of good effects with our knowledge and experience. We speak, and have always spoken with the conviction of faith in all the knowledge and experience that we have.

As a scholar, the very least you can do, and we are suggesting as well, is to respect the views, ideas, and opinions of both your critics and your supporters. Welcome them with open arms. Try not to give yourself to paranoia. See the benevolence in others, more than you will tend to see only the malevolence! This one is hard to do, but trust me, it is matter of how much you really want it! Just as you want so much to run 2:18:xx, why can’t you apply yourself similarly and want as much, if not more, to see the benevolence in and of others? Do you think the people whom you perhaps try to despise and invalidate, like "MG", "R" and "LT", are so devoid of sense(psychotic and/or neurotic) and of reason(presposterous) as to render a part of themselves to see that you do not have a premature or less than fulfilling end to your distance career?  Do you honestly think that way Soh Ruiyong? We are not either, by this statement insinuating that your coach Ian Dobson doesn’t know what he is talking about when he says he thinks you have what it takes to run 2:18:xx if you turned full-time professional. We are definitely able to critically and objectively appraise his view with statistical and analytical methods from science and math and reserve a judgement for the time being, because we know full well in the reliability of rigorously assessed and supported trends and models in distance running achievement and performance. Even if distance sport is part art and part science, the part art is still quantifiable, and therefore statistically and scientifically liable! Does that make any sense at all?

So please, as a scholar, stop behaving in a rogue and uncultivated manner online. Young starlets are looking around looking for a model to mimic, and the last thing we need is for such behaviors---ethics and morals to go on air. We live in a democratic society, we thrive in a diversity of views and constant dialogue, of which I have painstakingly tried to set up here the whole time, but always got summarily dismissed as a psycho by one of a dictator like you. Instead of denigrating these critics of yours in the manner in which you are doing so, I hereby would like to enliven the courage, dare-devil, and brutal transparency of these 3 vilified lads: "MG", "R", "LT", as well a few more well-meaning whistleblowers whose identities I will so far find no need to spare a mention.

Yours sincerely

*Some names are now initialed to protect the identities of some whistleblowers