BEATING THE REST IN THE RACE TO BE THE BEST - COMMANDOS TOP RUNNING COMPETITION AND SCORE A FIRST IN FUND-RAISING METHOD

For many soldiers, the Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT) is a challenge - not just to pass it, but to do well and get a silver or a gold award.

Those who achieve these high standards get monetary rewards for their effort.

Now imagine that the motivation for performing your very best at IPPT is knowing that your monetary rewards will all be given away.

A crazy thought?

Not so for the Commandos of the Singapore Armed Forces.

They received more than $98,000 for maintaining their high IPPT standards and gave it all away to charity. The amount was 13 percent of the total funds raised for the Community Chest and SAF Benevolent Fund in this year's Army Half Marathon. It was a whopping 280 percent above the target set for the Commando Formation.

Explained Second Sergeant (2SG) Fabian William Raj (left), coach of the Commando marathoners: "To most of us, this may just be another IPPT award of $200, but to the people who are receiving our aid, it means a lot. Furthermore, we hope to show that Commandos are not only strong physically and spiritually, but also compassionate."

Besides being a forerunner in the fund-raising effort, the Commandos also had the highest participation rate in the marathon. "When all our commanders put on their running shoes and started running; the men naturally followed suit," said Captain Joey Wong, a company commander in the unit.

Training hard and giving their best for any event they take part in has become de rigueur for the Red Berets. Thus it was no surprise that they won the Army Half Marathon.

"To put it simply, the factors that led to us winning were support from our commanders and our undaunted fighting spirit to be the best," said 2SG Fabian.