Singapore’s superstar sprinter Veronica Shanti Pereira took home a historic gold medal by winning the women’s 200m at the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou yesterday (October 2).
The 27-year-old blitzed to the finish line with a timing of 23.03 sec at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium. It marks Singapore’s first athletics gold for track at the Asian Games in a whopping 49 years. Chee Swee Lee was the last person to win a gold medal, in a 400m, for Singapore back in 1974.
Shanti Pereira was seen emotional, crying, and donning a Singaporean flag after she finished ahead of China’s Li Yuting (23.28sec) and Nigerian-born Edidiong Ofonime Odiong (23.48sec) representing Bahrain. It was her first 200m Asian Games final. This means she is Asia’s fastest woman sprinter which is another achievement for the country.
This week, Pereira already claimed a silver medal in the women’s 100m losing to Chinese sprinter Ge Manqi by just 0.04 seconds. Nevertheless, Singapore’s fastest female track star has had a record-breaking year with historic wins in the 100m and 200m SEA Games earlier this year, and other victories and achievements.
Learn more about her win on the Olympics website.
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