Shanti Pereira finishes sixth in 200m semis heat, misses out on World Athletics Championships finals

SINGAPORE: Shanti Pereira's impressive outing at the World Athletics Championships ended on Thursday (Aug 24) after she clocked a time of 22.79s in the women's 200m semi-finals.

Competing in the third of three heats at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest, Hungary, Pereira finished sixth. Jamaica's reigning 200m world champion Shericka Jackson took top spot and Sha'Carri Richardson, who won the 100m days ago, finished second.

The top 2 from each of the three heats moved on to the finals, along with athletes from the rest of the field with the next two fastest times.

Pereira placed 17th overall in the semifinals.

Her timing of 22.79s marks her fourth-fastest 200m ever, said Singapore Athletics in a Facebook post on Friday morning. 

Regardless of the outcome, Pereira had made history the day before after becoming the first Singaporean to make a World Championships semi-finals.

In the heats, she crossed the line in 22.57s, smashing her previous national mark of 22.69s. Pereira finished second in her heat, behind Jackson.

The time also meets the qualifying mark for the event at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

Pereira's appearance at the World Championships - where she qualified on merit, rather than as a wildcard - comes on the back of a scintillating 2023 for the Singaporean. 

Earlier this year, she became the first Singaporean woman to win both the 100m and 200m events at the same edition of the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in May and then followed that up with a sprint double at the Asian Athletics Championships in July.

On Sunday, Pereira missed out on a spot in the women's 100m semi-finals after clocking a time of 11.33s. The 26-year-old whose national record stands at 11.20s, finished fourth in the second heat of the event, and