'I knew it was my day': Singapore's Shanti Pereira retains Asian Games 200m gold, makes history

NAGOYA, Japan: Never mind the conditions, never mind the competition, never mind the pressure.

In Shanti Pereira's mind, there was only one athlete winning the women's 200m on Sunday (Sep 27).

That athlete was her.

On a rain-swept evening at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium on Sunday (Sep 27), Pereira wrote her name into the history books as she successfully defended her 200m Asian Games crown.

She becomes the first woman to win the event twice at the quadrennial event.

"Coming into today, I knew it was my day," she told reporters. "Nothing ... was going to stop me from getting it."

At the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium, the Singaporean clocked 22.78s, matching her season's best. She crossed the line ahead of China's Chen Yujie, who ran 22.93s. Harita Bhadra of India took bronze with a time of 23.20s.

Pereira, 30, was the top qualifier in the heats on Saturday. Her national record stands at 22.57s. 

Remarkably, she admitted to not feeling 100 per cent on Sunday morning.

"I'm so exhausted from all my races. I honestly hadn't been sleeping very well, probably from anxiety and just nerves," Pereira said. "But I knew that the mind is just such a powerful thing, if I believed and just let my body flow, I could bring it back home for Singapore."

Her win at the Hangzhou Games in 2023 was Singapore’s first athletics gold since 1974, when Chee Swee Lee claimed the women’s 400m title.

Earlier in the week, Pereira retained her silver in the 100m. The athlete she beat in the 200m final, Chen, won gold in a Games record of 11.06s, while Pereira clocked a season’s best of 11.21s, just 0.01s off her national mark.

"Belief over everything else," she said. "As long as I believe, I can do it. And that's what today. I don't even have the words, I'm just so happy."

Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam congratulated Pereira on her victory, describing her performance as "brilliant".

"Shanti gave everything she had, physically, mentally and emotionally, again. And made history as the first two-time winner in the women’s 200m at the Asian Games," he said in a Facebook post after the race.