Last week, Dipna Lim-Prasad was not even sure she would get to race at the SEA Games.

She had injured her leg during a training stint in Japan and the physiotherapist had a devastating recommendation: She should not race in Kuala Lumpur.

It did not help that she had been laid low by a virus for a month before that.

Still, she set aside the physical and mental scars from those setbacks to retain her 400m hurdles silver at the Bukit Jalil Stadium last night.

Said Lim-Prasad, whose leg injury was not as serious as initially thought: "(My) confidence coming in here was terrible... so I'm happy considering everything but objectively, it wasn't as good as I had hoped.

"I'm hoping for a personal best and a national record in the 400m on Thursday. But I'm relieved I pulled through."

The 26-year-old finished in 60.55 seconds, behind defending champion Nguyen Thi Huyen (56.06sec) of Vietnam and ahead of Thailand's Jutamas Khonkham (60.73sec).

Lim-Prasad's time was off her personal best of 59.24sec clocked at the 2015 Games but she said: "This is a season-best so that's good... I'm acknowledging and being grateful."

Team-mate Shanti Pereira came third in the 100m, clocking 11.76sec. Vietnam's Le Tu Chinh won (11.56sec) while Malaysian Zaidatul Husniah Zulkifli was second (11.74sec).