Shanti Pereira, the sprint queen from Singapore, incurred an injury a few months before the Paris Olympics. Singapore Athletics (SA) announced the unfortunate news through a statement posted on their website.
It stated: “Shanti has been ruled out of action with a leg injury ahead of the 84th Singapore Open Track & Field Championships as well as the Diamond League competition in Xiamen and Shanghai.”
Coach Luis Cunha reported that the runner had suffered a “common sports injury” and that, as a precaution, her competitive schedule would be modified to prioritize her healing. According to a statement from Singapore Athletics, it will collaborate with Pereira, her coach, and the Singapore Sport Institute (SSI) to make sure she gets all the help she needs to rehabilitate.
Pereira and Paris
She was supposed to travel back to Singapore to compete in the Singapore Open Track and Field Championships. She has been in Florida, USA, for training at the National Training Centre in Orlando. Moreover, Pereira was to be primarily situated in Europe to help her get ready for the August Games in Paris.
The organization declared that they will be “working closely with Luis to reorganize her training preparations towards Paris 2024 in the coming weeks.”
“In the meantime, she will train and undergo rehabilitation in Singapore,” her coach expressed.
Pereira’s race in the National Athletics Centre in Budapest, Hungary in August 2023 qualified her for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games in the 200 meters division.
Singapore sprint queen Shanti Pereira successfully defended her title and broke both the national and the games record as she took the gold in the women’s 200m event at the 32nd SEA Games with a timing of 22.69s at the Morodok Techo National Stadium on May 8.
In the 2021 SEA Games in Vietnam, Pereira won the gold medal with a time of 22.53s, which was then a national record too. This is Pereira’s third medal in the 200m sprint event as she also won a gold medal in the 2015 SEA Games. The games record was previously set by Philippines’ Kristina Knott in 2019 with a time of 23.01. That year Pereira won the bronze medal, sprinting to a time of 23.77s.
SEA Games 2023 – Women’s 200m Results
Meanwhile, Soh Rui Yong, a marathon gold medallist from the 2015 and 2017 SEA Games, was not too disappointing against the younger competitors in the 5,000m event on May 8. He managed to pace himself in the race and was among the group expected to finish on the podium. But towards the end of the race, Kieran Tuntivate of the Philippines picked up speed and left Soh and the rest of the pack behind to win the gold medal with a time of 14:34.77s. This is Tuntivate’s second medal of the 5,000m event as he won gold in the 2019 SEA Games – 14:31.15. Soh ended the race in fourth place with a time of 14:48.43, while the other Singapore competitor in this event, Jeevanesh, finished in 15th position 15:51.63.
Singapore won two bronze medals in the track and field competition courtesy of Goh Chui Ling in the women’s 1,500 race and Michelle Sng in the high jump competition.
This is Goh’s second bronze medal in the race. She had also won bronze in the previous SEA Games. Defending champion Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Oanh was unmatched by the rest of the competitors as she left them miles ahead to win the gold (04:16.85), while compatriot Bui Thị Ngan took the silver medal (04:24.57). Goh came third with a time of 04:26.33. For Sng, she is back at the podium after her historic gold medal performance at the 2017 SEA Games. Sng jumped a season’s best of 1.73m to clinch the bronze medal.
Photo credit: SNOC (Eng Chin An) and Singapore Athletics
Singapore won one gold, three silvers and seven bronze medals at the last SEA Games. In addition, five national records and eight personal best timings were recorded in Vietnam. When Singapore hosted the SEA Games in 2015, Singapore won three golds, three silvers and three bronze medals in athletics. The three gold medals came from Soh in the marathon, Shanti in the 200m sprint, and Zhang Guirong in shot put.
This year, Singapore Athletics are sending a total of 31 track and field athletes to Cambodia and the association’s president Lien Choon Luen hopes that the nation will be able to give their moral support to the athletes as they pursue glory at the SEA Games.
“We would also like to take this opportunity to express our appreciation to the coaches, trainers, and support staff who have worked tirelessly behind the scenes to help our athletes achieve their goals. Their efforts are invaluable and have contributed greatly to the success of our athletes. We are confident that our athletes will continue to make Singapore proud in the SEA Games 2023, and we wish them all the best in their upcoming competitions. We encourage all Singaporeans to rally behind our team and show their support by cheering them on as they compete on the regional stage. Together, let us celebrate the hard work and achievements of our athletes and inspire the next generation of young Singaporeans to pursue their dreams,” said Lien, Singapore Athletics president.
Photo credit: Singapore Athletics
Asian Games 2023 complete team list: Shanti, Kean Yew + 429 other athletes represent Singapore
SINGAPORE: There are only a few weeks till the Hangzhou Asian Games, to be held from Sept 23 to Oct 8, and excitement is in the air over the Singaporean athletes competing this year. Here is Singapore’s Asian Games 2023 complete team list.
The Singapore National Olympic Council announced last weekend that this year’s 431-strong contingent across 32 sports is the largest so far and unveiled that Mr Jowen Lim (Wushu) and Ms Amita Berthier (Fencing) are to be the flagbearers at this year’s Games.
Ms Berthier will also double up as the pledge taker.
The team includes former badminton world champion Loh Kean Yew and his older brother, Loh Kean Hean, as well as Sprint Queen Shanti Pereira, who has been having an amazing year.
Dr Koh Koon Teck, Chef de Mission for Team Singapore, said, “The athletes have their targets set and will be working closely with their performance team to meet them. I am confident that if they continue to train well and keep their focus, they will be able to perform to the best of their ability in Hangzhou.
“This year, we have also seen impressive performances from our athletes at the Cambodia 2023 SEA Games as well as at other competitions, and I hope Singaporeans can join us in encouraging them to continue to put their best form forward for Singapore.”
This year’s games had been scheduled for last year but were postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
There will be 483 events in 40 sports at the Asian Games.
Here is the full list of athletes on Team Singapore
Shericka Jackson, a renowned Jamaican runner, was dominating a women’s 200-metre race in Hungary when she abruptly suffered an injury. The event served as a practice run for the coming Olympics.
With women’s 100 and 200m Olympic gold medallist Elaine Thompson-Herah having previously withdrawn from the Games due to an injury, Jackson’s presumed ailment represents the latest blow to the Jamaican team. It’s still unclear how exactly Jackson might have been injured.
Jackson’s race performance
With about 50 metres left in the race, Jackson started to limp, but she managed to cross the finish line on her own. Due to this unexpected turn of events, Julien Alfred of St. Lucia finished first in the end, clocking a season-best time of 22.16 seconds to wrap up the competition. Lanae-Tava Thomas, a sprinter, finished third.
In the 400-metre competition at the Rio 2016 Olympics, Jackson took home a bronze medal. At the Tokyo Olympics, she went on to win gold in the 4×100-metre relay. The athlete is expected to be the greatest threat to American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson in the 100-metre event if she is well enough to run in Paris.
Following her 10.71-second finish in the women’s 100-metre race last month, Richardson will make her Olympic debut.
Elaine Thompson-Herah of Jamaica has pledged to make a comeback after being forced to withdraw from the Olympics in Paris due to an Achilles ailment.
The athlete previously chose not to compete in the 200 metres at the Jamaican trials, which put an end to her hopes of pulling off the record “triple double” of winning the 100 and 200 metres in three straight Olympics.
After injuring her lower leg during the New York Grand Prix earlier this month, Thompson-Herah announced on social media her withdrawal from the Jamaican trials but said that she is determined to continue her track career.
The athlete said: “It’s a long road but I am willing to start over and keep working and to make full recovery and resume my track career. I am hurt and devastated to be missing the Olympics this year but at the end of the day it’s sports and my health comes first.”
“I will wait and I will still continue to work towards my goals that I haven’t achieved yet. I will be definitely watching hopefully from the stands and cheer my country Jamaica 🇯🇲 on,” she added.
On ending the historic ‘triple double’ Olympic wins
Thompson-Herah was hoping to lock down a spot in the 100-metre and relay teams, but she had already opted not to run in the 200-metre event at the trials. After becoming the first woman to win consecutive gold medals in the 100 and 200 metres in the Tokyo Olympics, she lost the opportunity to attempt an Olympic ‘triple double’ by winning the 100 and 200 metres in the next Games.
With a second-fastest 100-metre time of 10.54, just 0.05 slower than Florence Griffith-Joyner’s world record, and the third-fastest 200-metre time in history, she is undoubtedly a modern-day sporting legend in the field of athletics.
Thompson-Herah has had a difficult few years following Tokyo, and last year’s injury-plagued season largely cost her a spot at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest. She came back for the 4×100-metre relay, but Jamaica won silver behind the United States, so she was not chosen for the final.
In the past, Thompson-Herah has experienced serious consequences from her Achilles injuries. She said the one-year Covid wait for the Tokyo Olympics helped her overcome the issue after she struggled to fifth place in the 100m at the 2017 World Championships and fourth place in 2019, after the Rio Olympics.
Keely Hodgkinson, the Olympic 800-metre champion, will be absent for the remainder of the 2024 track season due to her injury.
The 22-year-old athlete finished first in all nine of her 800-metre races in 2024, winning a gold medal in the Paris Games earlier this month. She was supposed to participate in September’s Diamond League finals in Brussels.
Announcing she won’t be participating in any more competition this year, Hodgkinson posted on social media: “No more races for me… Unfortunately I picked up a small injury, but we achieved everything I had hoped to do this year, thank you for all the love and support… See you on the track next year.”
Hodgkinson’s 2024 performance
In 2024, Hodgkinson successfully defended her 800-metre European title and set a new national best in July in the London Diamond League, clocking one minute, 54.61 seconds. Her goal is to surpass the more than forty-year-old 800-metre world record for women, which stands at 1:53.28.
In September 2025, Hodgkinson hopes to win her first World Championship championship in Tokyo after taking home silver in the previous two years.
