One of Singapore's most obnoxious sons decided to throw another jab at Tan Chuan-jin, following the Masterclass in Leadership course taught by the former Speaker of Parliament.
First he derided him for entirely lacking in leadership and banging ladies on the side, and then attempted to mock him, by launching his own course (and if someone signs up and pays $300 bucks, it's not going to hurt, right?).
Now, we know from past experience that Soh is not the person to be concerned about being factually correct, considering he lost two defamation cases in recent years.
Curiously, this time not only is he wrong in his smears (suggesting TCJ "slept with multiple women" when in reality he had a lengthy affair with an unmarried colleague) but it would appear he greatly exaggerates his own achievements.
Does Soh really "have experience in elite sports"?
Ignoring the comparison he's trying to make here i.e. leadership experience between an occasional runner (trained by coaches who failed to improve his performance) and an actual general and parliamentary speaker, the problem is that he's not even really good at what he's known for.
Which begs a question - what exactly has he ever done for Singapore to assume the position of a referee over anybody else, let alone a public servant of several decades (whose marriage went south)?
Beyond the occasional rants which have kept generating headlines in the local media over the past decade, what can he show for himself?
When the word "elite" is used, you think of someone with exceptional, outstanding performance who put the country on the map.
We know that is the case with Singapore government, which for many years included TCJ, as it is globally acclaimed as one of the world's best, regularly leading international rankings.
In local sports Joseph Schooling springs to mind, as he has actually won an Olympic gold medal. He beat global competitors for the title of the best in the world at an event with 206 participating countries.
Meanwhile, Soh Rui Yong won two gold medals in marathon at... SEA Games - a second rate contest of just 11 nations, none of them particularly successful in athletics (and all of them considerably poorer than Singapore too).
He never came anywhere near the world's elite at any distance he ran.
Now, some may think it's unfair to compare a Chinese guy to those genetically superior Kenyans or Ethiopians, who dominate the discipline and will soon break the 2 hour barrier in marathon running.
The problem is, however, that he isn't even elite among East Asians.
The best East Asian at the Tokyo Olympics, Suguru Osako from Japan, finished the race in 6th place. The best Chinese runner, Yang Shaohui, just one year Soh's junior, came 19th.
If SRY ran his National Record of 2:22:59, he would have come 63rd among 75 contestants who finished the run at all (to be fair he could have finished 7th... among women; still no medal, though).
Looking at the history of the sport, we'd have to go all the way back to late 1940s / early 1950s for his time to be competitive among the world's best.
So, yes, Soh is an elite marathoner... from 70 years ago.
And yet today he lectures people who have done far more for the nation and even believes he has something to teach others...? About what? How to lose to a Gurkha soldier in a discipline you devoted your life to, during an event you yourself organised?
The only thing of global prominence he has ever shown is his ego.
