Shanti Pereira became the first Singaporean to qualify for an individual sprint final at the Commonwealth Games on Thursday (July 30).
The sprint queen clinched a spot in the women’s 200m finals
At the Scotstoun Stadium in Glasgow, the 29-year-old clocked a season-best 22.81 seconds to finish third in her semi-final and eighth out of 24 overall. She is the first Singaporean sprinter to qualify for an individual final at the quadrennial event.
Adaejah Hodge of the British Virgin Islands won the same semi-final as Pereira in a Games record 22.01sec, ahead of Jamaican Ashanti Moore (22.49sec).
Shaniqua Bascombe of Trinidad and Tobago won the third semi-final with the second-best overall time of 22.31sec.
The top two finishers from each of the three semi-finals, along with the next two fastest athletes overall, advanced to the final, which will be staged on July 31 (Aug 1, 4.46am Singapore time).
An ecstatic Pereira said after her feat: “I can’t think right now, I’m just so happy. I was just waiting for the timing to come out. Honestly, it didn’t feel like a great race, but doesn’t matter… I got it and I’m just really happy.”
On clocking her season’s best, she added: “Under 23sec, oh my god, I’m so happy. It’s been such a long time coming, just chasing this. I’m so glad I did it here and it got me to a Commonwealth Games final.
“I was really just trying to keep as close to the top-two girls as possible, as far as I could. And I was racing with one of the best in the world (Hodge) and that was a little intimidating, but also exciting at the same time because I’m running with such strong girls from such strong nations and little Singapore is in the final now with all of them.”
Pereira also revealed her anxiety while watching the third semi-final as she sat in the hot seat with England’s Success Eduan as the two provisional qualifiers.
“I was looking at it, but I didn’t really care who the top two were. I was looking at who the third was and I was just doing my athlete math and was, like, ‘yeah, looks like I could be in the final’. That was what was going through my head.
“It was really cool though. I’ve never experienced that before, being in the hot seat to go into a final. Incredible.”
Pereira, the Asian Games gold medallist in the 200m, had qualified third out of 35 runners in the heats for her pet event with a 23.00sec effort on July 29 to claim one of the 24 berths in the semi-finals.
Earlier on July 27, she had booked a place in the 100m semi-finals after qualifying first in her heat and finishing third out of 53 athletes. Her time of 11.24sec was just 0.04sec shy of her national record of 11.20sec set at the 2023 Asian Athletics Championships.
Racing in cold and rainy conditions on July 28, she finished fifth in her semi-final in 11.40sec and 14th overall to miss out on a spot in the final. THE STRAITS TIMES
