An astonishing and agonizing 78 hours 30 minutes; that was the total duration that 42-year-old Gan Yu Shen Tholmas had bravely endured at the recent MediaCorp Subaru Challenge 2012 – The Asian Face-Off where every second was totally worth it as he outlasted all the contestants and walks home with the keys to the all-new Subaru XV 1.6.
The incredible time was also the second longest winning time recorded in the 11 years of the Challenge, with the record being 80-hour 32-minute set back in 2008. Gaining precious experience from his previous participation of the challenge, Mr. Gan got his chance for the third time from an online competition organized by Motor Image on the “I Love Subaru” Facebook fan page.
The competition this year totally challenges both physical and mental capabilities of the contestants. With 400 contestants from all over the region filling in the Ngee Ann City’s Civic Plaza, the extreme weather made a quick job in cutting down the numbers to a handful of strong and determined participants.
In the end, the software engineer stood his ground and emerged as the victor in this grueling Challenge and acknowledged his victory by immediately thanking his supporters and asking a bottle of iced water.
“I am very excited to be the winner since this is my third time participating in the challenge for three consecutive years. I am really happy to win the car and I can’t wait to see my family after being away for four days”, said Mr. Gan.
The runner up, Mr. G Jaishanker also did not go home empty handed as the first-time participant received a $5,000 cash prize. Like Mr. Gan, the 47-year-old catering officer does not give up easily and is looking forward in joining the challenge again for next year.
The prizes were presented to them by Mr. Glenn Tan, Executive Director of Tan Chong International Ltd. and Vice President of English Programming (English) Ms. Dahlia Z from MediaCorp.
“This was a rather surprising result in the 11-year history of the event. After the blistering heat of the first two days I was convinced there would be an early finish to this year’s event and I am totally amazed at the resilience of the contestants. They really did dig incredibly deep to stay the distance”, said Mr Glenn Tan, Executive Director, Tan Chong International.
