Singaporean Shanti Pereira has broken another national record on Wednesday, Aug. 23 and booked her place in the 200m semi-finals at the World Athletics Championships at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest.

The reigning Asian champion clocked 22.57 seconds to finish second in Heat Three behind Jamaica’s defending champion Shericka Jackson, whose time was just 0.06 seconds faster at 22.51s.

You can watch the video here.

The 26-year-old’s previous timing was 22.69s, a national record, which won gold at the Cambodia SEA Games in May 2023.

This is the first time that Pereira has made the semi-finals at four world championships.

The 200m semi-finals will take place on Friday morning Singapore time.

The top three from each of the six heats moved on to the semi-finals, along with athletes from the rest of the field with the next six fastest times.

Pereira missed the cut for the 100m semi-final on Sunday, after clocking a time of 11.33s, finishing fourth in the second heat of the event, and 31st overall.

Pereira had qualified for the world meet from Aug. 19 to 27 as a result of her world rankings in the 100m and 200m.

She became the first Singaporean to do so since at least 2011, the year data started to be tracked by the Singapore Athletics national body.

Streak

Shanti has her sights on the upcoming Asian Games in Hangzhou in September.

Her record-breaking runs started in March when she broke the national 100m record at the New Zealand Track and Field Championships.

She has since gone faster, beating her time six times, from 11.48s to 11.20s.

She then broke the 100m and 200m national records in a single weekend in Brisbane, before the SEA Games in Cambodia.

She won both the 100m and 200m golds, breaking the national and SEA Games record for the 200m race.

She has also rewritten the 200m national mark four times in 2023 alone.

Her 22.69s time at the SEA Games 200m event in Cambodia was also a meet record.

She then claimed gold in the 200m at the Mittsommernacht Athletics meet in Charlottenburg, Berlin, on Jul. 30 with a timing of 23.32.

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