Shanti Pereira Wins Gold At Asian Games 200m Event, S’pore’s 1st In Athletics Since 1974

Shanti Pereira Wins Gold In Her Pet Event At Hangzhou Asian Games After Coming In 1st During Heats

Last Saturday (30 Sep), Singapore sprinter Shanti Pereira won a stunning silver medal at the Asian Games.

This sent hopes sky-high for another successful outing in her next race — the Women’s 200m.

Now, Shanti has inevitably made history once again for Singapore, winning gold in her pet event.

This is Singapore’s first Asian Games gold in athletics since 1974.

Shanti claims Asian Games gold with time of 23.03s

Shanti, 27, was competing in the Women’s 200m Finals at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium on Monday (2 Oct).

According to a Facebook post from Singapore Athletics (SA), she eventually finished with a time of 23.03 seconds to bring home the gold medal.

Behind her was China’s Li Yuting (23.28s) and Bahrain’s Edidiong Ofonime Odiong (23.48s).

1st Asiad athletics gold for S’pore in 49 years

Shanti’s win makes her the first Singaporean to win an Asiad gold medal in track and field for 49 years.

Our last gold medal was won by Chee Swee Lee in the Women’s 400m Finals during the 1974 Games in Teheran.

Shanti’s 100m silver was our first Asian Games medal of any kind in athletics since Chee’s achievement, ending Singapore’s long wait for medals.

She is also only the third Singaporean to win gold in athletics during the Games, behind Chee and Ng Liang Chiang, who triumphed in the Men’s 110m Hurdles in 1951.

Shanti was the fastest sprinter during the heats

Shanti made it to the finals by virtue of her performance in the 200m heats on Sunday (1 Oct).

She did this with ease by clocking 23.14s — the fastest among 24 competitors across three heats.

This paved the way for her to enter her very first Asian Games 200m final.

The gold caps off an amazing year for our sprint queen, who also won double gold at the SEA Games and the Asian Athletics Championships.

President & PM congratulate Shanti

Shanti’s feat has delighted Singaporeans.

Among those who congratulated her was Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who wrote in a Facebook post that it was a “brilliant victory”.

President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, in his own Facebook post, said the win was “epic”.

He explained that it was Singapore’s first-ever gold medal in sprinting at the Asian Games.

He also noted that it came against a much larger field of competition than before, especially from much larger countries than Singapore.

Congrats to Shanti for her stellar results. Singaporeans are truly proud to call her one of our own.

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Featured image adapted from Singapore National Olympic Council on Facebook.