Shanti Pereira breaks national women's 100m, 200m records in a single weekend

Sprinter is in the form of her life as she smashes her own previous marks while competing at Australian Open

Singapore sprinter Shanti Pereira.
Singapore sprinter Shanti Pereira. (FILE PHOTO: Reuters)

SINGAPORE — In the form of her life, sprinter Shanti Pereira smashed both the national women's 100m and 200m records in a single weekend, while competing at the Australian Open Track and Field Championships in Brisbane.

On Sunday (2 April), the reigning SEA Games women's 200m gold medallist became the first Singaporean woman to go under 23 seconds in the event, clocking 22.89sec during the heats to eclipse her own 23.16sec national mark set at the Brisbane Track Classic on 25 March.

This came after she broke the national women's 100m record twice in two days, en route to winning the event on Saturday.

First she clocked 11.38sec during Friday's heats, breaking her own national record of 11.46sec set at the New Zealand Track and Field Championships in Wellington on 3 March.

Then in the final, she broke her mark again, clocking 11.37sec to finished first, in front of Australians Torrie Lewis (11.38sec) and Bree Masters (11.41sec).

It has been a sensational month for the 26-year-old Pereira, who is aiming for golds in both races at next month's SEA Games in Cambodia. She is also preparing for the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok in July, as well as the Asian Games in Hangzhou from 23 September to 8 October.

She had begun training full-time in January, after joining the Sport Excellence (Spex) Scholarship programme, which provides financial and other support for elite athletes.

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