Less is more as S’pore sprint queen Shanti Pereira prepares to defend SEA Games sprint double

SINGAPORE – With nearly three-quarters of her season gone, Singapore’s sprint queen Shanti Pereira believes fewer competitions will be the best preparation for more success at the year-end SEA Games in Thailand.

It has been a long season for the 29-year-old. Her first race of 2025 came at the International Track Meet in New Zealand back in February, while her most recent competition was September’s World Athletics Championships in Japan,

where she clocked 23.13sec in the 200m heats

and did not make the semi-finals.

Speaking to the media at the launch of the School Sports Fiesta at Edgefield Secondary School on Oct 15, she said: “To win (the SEA Games), that’s my target... No sugar-coating it.

“(Preparations) are going good, this time round the SEA Games is a bit late in the year, so I did have to rearrange my season quite a bit.

“I do have some preparation races in the next few weeks, but because it was a rather long season for me, I won’t be competing as much before the Games... Just to prepare for me to be in my best shape.”

She won the sprint double at the Cambodia SEA Games in 2023, clocking 11.41sec in the 100m and 22.69sec in the 200m.

At the Asian Athletics Championships in South Korea in May 2025, Pereira also registered 11.41sec in the century sprint and 22.98sec in the 200m as she won silver medals in both.

She was also part of the women’s 4x100m relay quartet that bettered the national record, alongside Elizabeth-Ann Tan, Shannon Tan and Laavinia Jaiganth.

The launch of the inaugural School Sports Fiesta also marked the beginning of a nationwide One Team, One Dream campaign to rally support for Team Singapore athletes, ahead of the Dec 9-20 SEA Games and Jan 20-26 Asean Para Games.

The fiesta, which was first announced

by Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth David Neo in Parliament in September, is an initiative that encourages youth to play, learn and compete together, creating bonds and nurturing values through sport.

On Oct 15, around 1,400 students from four secondary schools participated in basketball, boccia, frisbee and sitting volleyball competitions and got to try out sports like athletics, football, hockey and tennis.

In his speech, Mr Neo said: “The School Sports Fiesta aims to get more students from different schools and backgrounds to unite through sports and to play together.

“Through sports, our students make new friends and learn about teamwork, respect and resilience.”

Pereira believes the fiesta will allow kids to pick up sports more easily and “develop a love” for it.

She added: “It always has to start somewhere. Kids pick up sports because they try them out in the first place, and so it’s really just a journey from there.

“It was fun, I was running around with my friends, doing shuttle runs, picking up bean bags and doing ladder drills.

“And then later on, I started doing sports days and I thought, ‘Whoa, this is actually quite fun’... I did not think I was going to be Singapore’s sprint queen, but here I am.”

For national women’s footballer Farhanah Ruhaizat, who was also at the fiesta’s launch, her sporting journey started as a ball kid about a decade ago.

“From there, (I found other) avenues of connections (to play football), but in those times, clubs weren’t that exposed yet,” said the 27-year-old, who will be one of the senior players in the Lionesses squad for the Games.

“I think it’s an opportunity for them (the students), if they come here to play, and then they find themselves wanting to compete more, there’s a lot of other avenues that they can go to like academies and clubs.”

With para sports boccia and sitting volleyball being part of the fiesta, boccia player Aloysius Gan believes this will help to promote inclusivity, adding: “Last time when we talked about our sports, people didn’t really understand what para sport is. So we hope that through all these activities and events, we bring our sports into their life.”

Anay Joshi, a Secondary 1 student from Yusof Ishak Secondary who competed for his school in sitting volleyball, said: “My experience was great, and I came to this event with the mindset that I shouldn’t go back empty-handed.

“I chose sitting volleyball as my CCA because I thought that the other sports were quite ordinary and this stood out to me.

“I got the chance to mingle with students from other schools and after every game, they would voluntarily come to shake our hands, which really motivated us and also showed that sportsmanship still exists.”