Singapore's Shanti Pereira wins historic 200m Asian Games gold
This is Shanti Pereira's second medal at the Asian Games after taking silver in the 100m.
Singapore sprinter Shanti Pereira celebrating her 200m win at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China on Oct 2, 2023. (Photo: SportSG/Bryan Foo)
HANGZHOU, China: As Singapore held its breath in expectation, its sprint queen delivered jubilation.
At the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium on Monday (Oct 2), Shanti Pereira clocked 23.03s to win the women’s 200m final at the Asian Games.
China's Li Yuting took the silver with 23.28s and Bahrain's Edidiong Ofonime Odiong came third at 23.48s. Odiong's compatriot, Salwa Eid Naser, was disqualified for a false start.
This was Singapore’s first athletics gold medal since 1974, when Chee Swee Lee won the women’s 400m.
Draped in a Singapore flag, the 27-year-old crouched down on the track and covered her face with her hand, before raising her arms aloft in victory.
On Saturday, Pereira ended her country's nearly 50-year wait for a track and field medal at the Asian Games, after she clinched a silver in the women’s 100m.
Pereira, whose 200m personal best stands at 22.57s, then topped all three heats for the event the next day, with a time of 23.14s.
This was her first Asian Games 200m final. At the last edition in 2018, she did not advance past the semi-finals.
OVERCOMING ADVERSITY
The Singaporean has overcome much to get to where she is today.
She first burst into the nation's consciousness at the 2015 Southeast Asian Games when she took gold in the 200m, clocked a personal best and set a new national record. Her win also ended a 42-year gold medal drought for Singapore in a SEA Games sprint event.
But with it came the enormity of expectations. That coupled with injuries meant that some wrote Pereira off over the next few years.
"Slowly, people just kind of lost faith in me. People have their opinions about my journey, and whatnot. I think, for a while there, I really did let it get to me, which is not ideal,” she said previously.
"There was a lot of self-doubt that kind of grew as the years went by. Just because it was like - again another season I couldn't get a PB (personal best), and it just continued and continued and continued.”
The negativity ate her up, added Pereira. It got to the point that there were times when she was no longer excited to compete or even train. Instead, what she felt was fear.
But she never gave up.
With support from her family and the guidance of coach Luis Cunha, she bounced back at the 2022 SEA Games, clinching gold in the 200m and silver in the 100m.
In May this year, Pereira became the first Singaporean woman to win both the 100m and 200m events at the same edition of the SEA Games; then followed that up with a sprint double at the Asian Athletics Championships in July.
In August, Pereira became the first Singaporean to make a World Championships semi-finals after a stellar showing in the 200m. She also met the qualifying mark for the event at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Prior to this year's Asian Games, Pereira had been targeting medals in the 100m and 200m.
Now, she has done just that, and then some.
