SINGAPORE – Every time a national athletics record in Singapore is broken, Thiruben Thana Rajan quickly gets to work.

Head of marketing and sponsorships at Singapore Athletics (SA), Thiruben’s work includes creating social media content to celebrate athletes’ achievements and historic milestones.

Since joining South Africa as a trainee in January 2023 before taking up a full-time role last June, he has had plenty to show for it – from sprint queen Shanti Pereira’s historic successes to SEA and at the Asian Games to marks set by 100m runner Marc Louis and long-distance runner Soh Rui Yong.

Today, Thiruben, 24, is eager to write his own record and his own story.

On November 10, the 800m runner took a major step towards that goal by running a personal best (PB) of 1 minute 51.73 seconds at the SA Interclub Championships at Yio Chu Kang Stadium.

Competing for the Oldham Athletics team. his time reached the qualifying mark of 1:53.86 for the 2025 SEA Games and puts him close to the 37-year-old national record of 1:50.56 (electronic timing) set by S. Pandian.

The hand-timed time of 1:49.9 was recorded by S. Surenda in 1983.

Thiruben, who will next compete in the Victorian Milers Club meet on December 19 in Melbourne, Australia, is confident he will soon be able to better both his records.

He said: “A lot of my job is writing about national records and interviewing other national athletes, and it’s a good thing that many old records have been broken recently.

“So now for me to be able to be a part of it is amazing. My goal is to reach my maximum potential, that is, to go beyond the national record.

A member of the pioneering group of spexPotential athletes announced in April, he moved from the 400m to the 800m in early 2024. Holder of the national under-18 record in the 400m (47.91), he competed in this event at the Games 2022 Asian Games and 2023 SEA Games – he ran a personal best of 47.26 in Hangzhou and finished fifth at Cambodia respectively.

But he was hampered by injuries during the one-lap race and in April he suffered a grade 2 hamstring tear in his first race of the season.

“After so many years of constant injuries, I decided that I should just move on to the 800 because it suits my body much better,” said Thiruben, a former cross-country runner who also competed in the 800. m at school.