Singapore sprinter Shanti Pereira has qualified for the World Athletics Championships (WAC) happening next week from 19 Aug to 27 Aug.
The 26-year-old qualified for the women’s 100m and 200m events at the biennial meet through her world ranking.
What’s more impressive is that she’s the first Singaporean to qualify for WAC through merit in over a decade.
Source: v_shantipereira on Instagram
Shanti had previously participated in three iterations of the WAC but as a wild card.
According to The Straits Times, Shanti qualified for the women’s 100m and 200m events at the 2023 WAC through her world ranking.
Even though she did not meet the qualifying time of 11.08 seconds and 22.60 seconds respectively, she qualified for the event through the points accrued from previous competitions.
This is the first time that a Singaporean athlete has done so since at least 2011 when tracking of such data began.
For the women’s 100m event, Shanti reportedly qualified as the 36th-highest entrant as each country is only allowed a maximum of three participants.
As for the women’s 200m event, the 26-year-old was 2nd on the list of those who qualified through their world rankings.
Fellow Singapore sprinter Calvin Quek will join Shanti at the WAC, held in Budapest.
Posts on Shanti’s Instagram page indicate that she’s already in the Hungarian capital.
Source: v_shantipereira on Instagram
Speaking to Channel NewsAsia (CNA), Shanti says she hopes to achieve personal best (PB) timings for both events.
At the moment, her personal bests for the 100m and 200m events are 11.20 seconds and 22.69 seconds respectively.
Prior to this year, Shanti had reportedly participated in three past WACs, but as a wild card.
Shanti scored two gold medals at the Asian Athletics Championships last month, breaking the national record for the women’s 100m event in the process.
She ended the month on a high two weeks later by winning gold at a competition in Germany.
We wish Shanti and Calvin all the best in the upcoming WAC. We have no doubts that they’ll do Singapore proud.
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Featured image adapted from Team Singapore on Facebook.
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