Shanti Pereira falls short of 100m semi-final at World Athletics Championships
She is the fastest Asian women in 2023 but Shanti Pereira was not able to reach her top speed on Sunday in the 100m heats of the World Athletics Championships and fell short of qualification to the semi-final.
Pereira, 26, clocked 11.33 seconds to finish fourth in heats two in Budapest. Brittany Brown of the United States (11.01sec) was first, ahead of Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith (11.04sec) and Spain’s Jael Bestue (11.28sec).
Pereira’s time was 0.13sec short of her personal best and national record of 11.20sec, recorded at July’s Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok where she completed an unprecedented sprint double.
The first three finishers in each of the seven heats in Hungary plus the next three fastest times qualify for Monday’s semi-final. The final is on the same day.
Pereira was ranked 31st of 54 sprinters in the 100m heats. American Sha’Carri Richardson, who missed the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 after testing positive for cannabis, was quickest in 10.92sec.
The Republic’s other representative, Calvin Quek, 27, did not progress to the semi-final of the 400m hurdles on his World Championships debut. He finished last in his heat in 50.53sec, 0.10sec off his national record.
Pereira, who qualified for the Aug 19-27 world meet on merit, will now turn her attention to her pet 200m event with the heats on Wednesday.
She has competed in three previous editions as a wild card. She had booked her spot this time through her world rankings in both the 100m and 200m. She is the first Singaporean to do so since at least 2011, when national body Singapore Athletic began to track such data.
Her big assignment for the year is still the Sept 23-Oct 8 Asian Games in Hangzhou where she is a serious contender for gold after a breakthrough 2023. She has ran the quickest times by an Asian woman in both sprint events this season.
Since March, Pereira has rewritten her 100m national mark six times and gone below her own 200m standard thrice. In May, she won the 100m and 200m gold at the SEA Games in Cambodia, becoming the first Singaporean female sprinter to complete the coveted double and she repeated the feat at the Asian Athletics Championships.
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