Shanti Pereira

She finished 6th in her heat with a season-best time of 23.96s.

At the 2021 Southeast Asian Games, Pereira won the gold medal at the 200 m with a time of 23.52s, rewriting the national record she had set in the 2015 Southeast Asian Games.

In the 100 m, she won the silver medal, clocking 11.62s.

At the 2022 Commonwealth Games, Pereira clocked 11.48s in the 100 m heats, breaking her previous record of 11.58s set in 2019.

However, her time of 11.57s in the next round was unable to earn her qualification for the final.

In the 200 m, she also broke her previous record with a time of 23.46s.

Veronica Shanti Pereira (born 20 September 1996) is a Singaporean track and field athlete who specialises in the 100 m, 200 m, 4 x 100 m, and 4 x 400 m.

She holds the 100 m national record (11.20s), 200 m national record (22.57s), 200 m SEA Games record (22.69s), and the 200 m Asian Athletics Championships games record (22.70s).

She was ranked 1st in Asia in 2023 for both the 100 m and 200 m based on World Athletics' records.

Pereira was introduced to track and field when she was in Primary Three at CHIJ (Katong) Primary, after watching her elder sister compete in a school race.

She subsequently enrolled in Singapore Sports School, where she led them to the C Division team championship at the National School Games.

Pereira then studied for a diploma in sports and leisure management offered jointly by Republic Polytechnic and Singapore Sports School.

She clocked the same time in the semifinal, placing 11th overall among 24 runners.

In October 2022, Sport Singapore announced that Pereira was one of seven athletes who had joined the 2022 Sport Excellence (Spex) Scholarship programme; she was previously a Spex scholar between 2016 and 2018.

In 2013, Pereira became the first female Singaporean to run the 100 m in under 12 seconds when she clocked 11.89s at the 2013 World Youth Championships in Athletics in Donetsk, Ukraine.

At the 2013 Southeast Asian Games, she came in fourth in the 100 m final.

In 2014, she became the first female Singaporean to run the 200 m in under 24 seconds when she clocked 23.99s at the Asian Junior Athletics Championships.

At the 2015 Southeast Asian Games, Pereira won the bronze medal in the 100 m with a time of 11.88s, Singapore's first medal in the event in 42 years.

She also won the gold medal in the 200 m with a time of 23.60s, rewriting the national record she had set in the day's heats (23.82s); this was Singapore's first gold medal in a sprint event in the SEA Games in 42 years.

Although the Singapore quartet which she was part of came in fourth in the 4 x 400 m relay, it broke the oldest record in Singapore's athletics history with a time of 3:40.58.

In her final event, the 4 x 100 m relay, the team came in fourth, but set a new national record of 45.41s.

In 2017, she was awarded the Yip Pin Xiu Scholarship to study accountancy at Singapore Management University.

At the 2017 Southeast Asian Games, Pereira won the bronze medal in both the 100 m and 200 m; she repeated this double at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.

In 2021, Pereira qualified for the 200 m in the 2020 Summer Olympics through universality places.

In 2018, she lost the scholarship, being unable to keep the minimum GPA requirements.

Pereira eventually graduated in 2021.

Pereira set a number of records in her youth.

She holds the U-23 records for the 100 m (11.80s) and 200 m (23.99s) and was a member of the teams which set the records for the 4 x 100 m (46.64s) and 4 x 400 m (3:44.80) relays; the U-19 records for the 100 m (11.89s) and 200 m (23.99s); the U-17 records for the 100 m (12.21s) and 200 m (24.92s); and U-15 records for the 100 m (12.68s).

She had lost the Spex scholarship in 2018 as she was unable to medal at the 2018 Asian Games.

2023 was a watershed year for Pereira.

On 3 March, she clocked 11.46s in the 100 m heats of the New Zealand Track and Field Championships to rewrite her national mark.

While she ran 11.44s to win the bronze in the final, this was not recognised as a record due to the strong tailwind (3.4 m/s).

On 25 March, she clocked 23.16s to break her 200 m national record after finishing third at the Brisbane Track Class.

On 31 March, she rewrote her 100 m national record after running 11.38s at the Australia Open; she lowered the mark to 11.37s when she won the final the next day.

On 2 April, she ran 22.89s in the 200 m at the same meet, rewriting her national mark yet again and becoming the first Singaporean woman to run under 23s.

2023 was also the year Pereira became the first Singaporean to top World Athletics' women's 100 m outdoor rankings in Asia.

At the 2023 SEA Games in Phnom Penh, Pereira successfully defended her 200 m title; her time of 22.69s not only rewrote the Singapore record, but the SEA Games record as well.

She also won the 100 m, becoming the first Singaporean woman to win the sprint double at the SEA Games.

In the same month, she ran 11.34s and 11.26s in the heats and final respectively at the International Pentecost Sports Meeting in Rehlingen, rewriting her national mark twice in the same day and setting a Southeast Asian best.

On 14 July, Pereira won the 100 m at the Asian Athletics Championships with a time of 11.20s, rewriting her national record for the sixth time in 2023 and becoming the first Singaporean to win a gold at the championships; this also ended Singapore's 16-year medal drought at the continental meet.