How fast is Shanti Pereira now?

Since the start of 2023, it would appear that Shanti Pereira has broken records and milestones almost every time she races in her pet 100m and 200m events. 

She is the first Singaporean woman to win both events at the same edition of the Southeast Asia Games. She rewrote the national record for 100m, not once but twice in a day, at a sports meet in Germany - setting the fastest time by an Asian woman in the event so far this year.

She followed these up with another sprint double win at the Asian Athletics Championships.

Just how fast has Shanti gotten over the past year?

She came in first for the 100m at 12.03s at the 2022 Malaysia Open on Mar 5, and as the year progressed, she continued to improve her timings.

This culminated with her breaking the national record at the Commonwealth Games with a time of 11.48s.

The momentum carried through to 2023, and Shanti continued to chip away at her personal best and national record timings - shaving off another 0.2s by the time the SEA Games started in May. 

At the Asian Athletics Championships where she ran the fastest time this year - an 11.20s to clinch gold.

Her 200m races took a similar trajectory - but with more marked improvements.

She ended 2022 at 23.46s, which was the national record and her personal best at the time. 

She sliced almost a second off this mark by the time the World Championships came about in August - where she clocked her current national record of 22.57s.

Doing so also meant she was the first Singaporean to progress into the semi-finals at the World Championships.

So, what’s been the gamechanger for Shanti over the past year?

For one, a change of perspective has helped, Shanti told CNA.

Last November, it was announced that she would join