Shanti Pereira misses out on 200m semi-finals at World Athletics Championships
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Singapore's Shanti Pereira (left), US athlete Anavia Battle and Guinean athlete Fatouma Conde compete in the women's 200m heats during the World Athletics Championships on Sept 17.
PHOTO: AFP
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- Shanti Pereira missed qualifying for the 200m semi-finals at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, clocking 23.13 seconds.
- Pereira finished fourth in her heat; 0.56sec short of her national record (22.57sec) set in Budapest in 2023 where she reached the semi-finals.
- Pereira will focus on the upcoming SEA Games in Thailand (Dec 9-20), aiming to retain her 100m and 200m titles.
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SINGAPORE – Singapore sprint queen Shanti Pereira’s campaign at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo ended on Sept 17, after she missed out on qualification for the women’s 200m semi-finals.
The 28-year-old clocked 23.13 seconds to finish fourth in Heat 1 at the Tokyo National Stadium. Anavia Battle of the United States (22.07sec) was first, ahead of Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith (22.39) and Greece’s Polyniki Emmanouilidou (22.92).
The top three of each heat and the next six fastest qualifiers advanced to the next round. The Singaporean finished 30th out of 47 runners overall.
She was quicker than China’s Chen Yujie (23.26sec) and Li Yuting (23.64sec). Chen beat Pereira to the 200m gold at the Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea in May, while Li clinched bronze.
Pereira’s time in her pet event was 0.56sec short of her national record of 22.57sec registered at the last edition of the world championships in Budapest in 2023.
Then, she became the first Singaporean to reach the semi-finals of the world championships.
Reflecting on her Tokyo outing, Pereira said: “I definitely hoped to see a better time and classification today, it does sting not making the semis this time round.
“But overall, I’m happy with how I showed up to the stage, and most importantly I’m healthy and I had the honour of representing my country yet again on the world stage. That will always be special to me.”
Pereira, who was competing in her fifth world championships, will now look ahead to the Dec 9-20 SEA Games in Thailand, where she will be the favourite to retain her 100m and 200m titles.
“I’ll have a bit of a break then the work continues for the SEA Games, which I’m really looking forward to,” she said.
