SINGAPORE - The Yolo Run Singapore, which drew flak for poor organisation last year, has received similar criticism from participants this year.

Participants of Saturday's (Oct 13) run at Gardens By The Bay, now in its fourth edition, took to social media to voice their unhappiness over several issues including long waiting times for race entitlements. Those who had opted to receive their race packs via Honestbee's delivery service also complained of delays in receiving their race packs.

According to at least three complainants on Yolo Run Singapore's Facebook page, the 10km route distance was again measured inaccurately. Last year, participants had pointed out that they ran only about 7km. This time, it was reportedly about 1km short.

That led to participants Jerome Besnaud and Yosuke Nakamura both sarcastically noting that this was an “improvement” from last year, although Nakamura’s comment was later deleted. But Besnaud noted: “Some improvements though, 10k went from actual 7k last year to 9.”

In another comment on the page, participant Tong Chen Hao said he waited over 40 minutes to collect his medal.

There was also another queue to collect foam rollers, which were part of the race entitlements, and Tong expressed concern about the seeming lack of crowd management in this queue, noting: "It was a big mess - random lines formed and merged into the queue with no resemblance (sic) of order whatsoever."

Participants also took to the sgrunners.com forum to express their unhappiness.

Not all participants had unpleasant experiences, however.

The flag-off for this year's event, which had two categories (5km and 10km), was delayed due to rain on Saturday morning. A runner who only wanted to be known as Brandon told The Straits Times: "The entire race went smoothly for me... The ground was wet and flag-off was delayed but that can't be helped.

"There were people complaining about having to queue up to collect their medals and foam roller, but I didn't care too much about those so I went off (after the race)."

Those who took part in the 2017 Yolo Run were given free entry tickets this year to make up for last year's organisational issues.

When asked for his response to the complaints, Yolo Run founder Xavier Bay said: “The wet weather caused the terrain at the medal collection point to be waterlogged and slippery. For safety, we diverted the crowd through the safest available pathway into the main event site. This only affected the waiting time slightly. Waiting time surged temporarily when a large quantity of runners arrived together towards the end of the race.”

He also pledged to review the feedback and “assist our participants in the best manner possible”.

“Continuous improvement is a never ending journey for us,” he added.