Singapore's Shanti Pereira wins 100m finals at Australian championships, breaks national record again

SINGAPORE: The records keep tumbling for Singapore sprinter Shanti Pereira as she notched a new national record of 11.37s, en route to winning the women's 100m finals at the Australian Open Track and Field Championships in Brisbane on Saturday (Apr 1).

The time was 0.01s faster than the previous national record she set in the heats of the event on Friday.

Pereira took the gold, while Australians Torrie Lewis (11.38s) and Bree Masters (11.41s) finished second and third respectively.

The Singaporean had clocked a time of 11.58s in the semi-finals earlier in the day.

Saturday's result came less than a week after Pereira registered a new national record (23.16s) in the 200m final at the Brisbane Track Classic, where she finished third.

The 26-year-old has been training full-time since January, after it was announced last November that she would join the Sports Excellence Scholarship programme, which supports athletes headed to major Games.

Pereira has had a stellar 2022.

She won gold and set a national record in the 200m at the 31st SEA Games in Vietnam, in addition to clinching silver in the 100m. Pereira would go on to lower that 200m record once more at the Commonwealth Games.

Among the competitions in the pipeline for Pereira this year are the SEA Games in May - where she is looking to retain her 200m crown - as well as the Asian Athletics Championships, World Athletics Championships and Asian Games.