The Story
The Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon (SCSM), an IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations – renamed as World Athletics in 2019) Gold Label Road Race has grown significantly to become the biggest running event in Singapore since its inaugural race in 1982. It celebrates its 20th edition this year with a return of the largest in-person running event in hybrid format to be held in Singapore in the midst of the ongoing unabated Covid-19 pandemic that has been raging the world for almost 2 years now.
Having worked with the organisers for the 2019 event, KIN was once again selected to create a safe and positive on-site experience for fully vaccinated participants at the physical flag-off and finishing point at the event held on Dec 4, 2021.
Working to ensure compliance to Singapore’s current and on-going Safe Management Measures (SMM) with changes being the only thing constant was inevitably challenging. Addressing organisers concerns with creating a covid-safe environment, and dealing with the ever-evolving revisions to guidelines and policies to manage the current mutated variants were the topmost priorities throughout the planning and execution stage.
Strict adherence to current SMM was required for both event crew and runners. The 4000 participants were required to take a self-administered Antigen Rapid Test (ART) prior to the event before being allowed to run through the picturesque Marina Bay circuit again.
Working closely with the organisers the IRONMAN Group, KIN’s scope of work included examining of event venue and running routes, evaluating participation numbers to propose the number of collection points, making sure flag-off scheduling was not contradictory to runners’ flow while effecting the safeguarding of participants and event crew’s health and safety throughout. KIN was also task with making sure that event branding and information were clearly displayed on-site together with SMM reminders to runners along running routes to minimise any potential breach of SMM and event rules.
The successful execution for the SCSM 2021 brought about the display of courage, confidence and resilience by the SCSM community. KIN team is honoured to support the IRONMAN group and play its part in Singapore’s sporting fraternity in moving our community towards a Covid-endemic society.
