She changed her mindset, broke barriers and won SEA Games gold. Now Shanti Pereira wants to go faster

SINGAPORE: Seven years.

Of pressure, of pain, of doubt. Of trying harder, of getting faster, of growing wiser.

There are now brown streaks in her hair, seven tattoos inked on her skin, and three goals on her mind.

Give everything. Enjoy yourself. Send a message.

And as she prepared herself for the women's 200m final at the 31st SEA Games in Hanoi, sprinter Shanti Pereira would repeat a mantra. Over and over and over again.

"No matter what happens, you'll be good."

To understand what the race felt like to Pereira, one has to go back to the 2015 Games in Singapore.

At the meet, she would win gold in the 200m, clock a personal best and set a new national record. The win also ended a 42-year gold medal drought for Singapore in a Games sprint event.

A new sprint queen had arrived.

“I was just excited to be there, competing in front of a home crowd,” recalled Pereira, who also clinched a bronze in the 100m.

But with the weight of winning came the enormity of expectations.

“It created a lot of pressure and I feel like I didn't have the experience to cope with it yet,” she explained.

The next edition of the Games would end in tears for Pereira, as she finished with a pair of bronzes in the 100m and 200m.

Then came two injuries in 2018, before she would finish with two bronzes again at the 2019 Games.

"Physically for the longest time, I was there. I (felt I) could do a PB (personal best), NR (national record) and all that but mentally I wasn't there," she said.

"There was a lot of self-doubt that kind of grew as the years went by. Just because it was like - again another season I couldn't get a PB, and it just continued and continued and continued."

And some people began to write her off, said Pereira.

"Slowly, people just kind of lost faith in