Lure of mass sports events is here to stay

Singapore

IT was about seven years ago when Chris Robb had a hunch that the running scene in Singapore was reaching its saturation point, such was the high number of events here that he felt there was little room for further growth.

At that time, the managing director of Spectrum Worldwide, a Singapore-based sports event management company, had already overseen the launch of the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge and the Standard Chartered Marathon runs.

Mr Robb eventually expanded the business to include cycling in its portfolio - Spectrum started the annual Cycle Singapore in 2009 - but he is quick to acknowledge that the demand for run…