Double Joy For Lee, Goh

Both are too focused on breaking records in Queensland to realise it is National Day

- Kimberly Kwek

National Day is usually a time for Singapore distance runners Vanessa Lee and Shaun Goh to enjoy the festivities with family and friends, though in 2025 they spent it more than 5,000km from home.

On Aug 9, they celebrated the nation's 60th birthday differently at the Queensland 10,000m Championships in Brisbane, Australia, where they both broke the women's and men's 10,000m national records.

Lee's 36min 15.67sec was the winning time at the University of Queensland, bettering one of Singapore's oldest records - Yvonne Danson's 36:27.39 set en route to the bronze at the 1995 Chiang Mai SEA Games.

Goh crossed the finishing line fifth in 31:02.40, rewriting the men's 10,000m national mark that had earned Soh Rui Yong (31:10.70) silver at the 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia.

In the process, he also earned a provisional spot for the Thailand SEA Games in December by bettering the 35:31.03 bronze medal-winning time from Phnom Penh.

Lee, 27, said: "It didn't really dawn on us (what we achieved on National Day) until a while later. We were all so caught up in celebrating getting a double national record.