Hangzhou, China, October 2, 2023: Shanti Pereira ended Singapore’s 49-year wait for an Asian Games gold medal in athletics when she won the women’s 200 metres final at Hangzhou on Monday.
Pereira, the reigning Asian champion, put in a superb run to take the victory in 23.03 seconds, and add the 200m gold to the 100m silver medal she won a couple of days ago. China’s Li Yuting took the silver in 23.28 while Bahrain’s Edidiong Odiong, the defending champion, had to settle for the bronze in 23.48.
“I saw the finish line and I knew I had won. I was like ‘Oh my God’. It’s been so crazy. It means a lot to me. It’s been incredible,” said an overjoyed Pereira, who became the first Singaporean to win Asian Games athletics gold since Chee Swee Lee in the women's 400m in Tehran in 1974.
Now, in the space of a few days, Pereira has earned gold and silver to put Singapore on the scoreboard in athletics.
“I never thought this would happen, winning a gold and a silver. I wanted to do this but I never thought it was possible,” said the 27-year-old Pereira who earlier this year quit her job as a copywriter to become a full-time athlete.
This was made possible through Singapore’s Sports Excellence Scholarships. “When I was working and training at the same time, it was difficult to find time for recovery and hard to maintain a certain level of quality,” she recounted. The switch to become a professional athlete has paid rich dividends over the past few days in Hangzhou.
Pereira produced a master class to defeat crowd favourite Li and give Singapore athletics a massive boost.
“When I was on the block, I was telling myself ‘execute, execute, execute’ for every aspect of my race, especially the bend. I just focused on coming out of the curve and into the straight as strong as possible, and once I was on the straight, I just went for it,” Pereira related.
