The 43 year old pastry chef surprised everyone by being the first local athlete to cross the finish line at the Singapore marathon, but the runner admitted that he was cheating during the race last Sunday.
A man named Tam Chua Puh posted 2hr 46min defeating Singapore´s best marathoners. However, Tam admitted he had run only six kilometres of the whole marathon race before giving up due to knee pain and taking a short cut straight to the finish line.
The report at The Straits Times says that Tam, wearing a baseball cap, baggy shorts and a knee brace, was initially declared the winner before organisers disqualified him since he had missed all the check points.
Tam said he just wanted to make sure he could pick up his medal and T-shirt for finishing the race.
"I am sorry if I offended anyone. I never thought I would create so much inconvenience for the organisers," Tam said.
He added: "I never thought about going home midway. It would have been like giving up."
After Tam´s DQ Mok Ying Ren was crowned as the fastest marathoner in Singapore and will represent his country at the Southeast Asian Games in Myanmar.
Overall the race was won by Kenya's Luka Kipkemboi Chelimo who posted 2hr 14min.