Defending champion Shanti Pereira tops heats, advances to Asian Games 200m finals
Shanti Pereira clocked a time of 23.10s and was the top qualifier in the women's 200m heats.
Shanti Pereira leads during her Women's 200m heats at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games 2026 at the Paloma Mizuho Stadium in Nagoya, on Sep 26, 2026. (Photo: CNA/Wallace Woon)
This audio is generated by an AI tool.
Matthew Mohan 26 Sep 2026 07:06PM (Updated: 26 Sep 2026 10:41PM) Bookmark Bookmark Share WhatsApp Telegram Facebook Twitter Email LinkedIn Set CNA as your preferred source on Google Add CNA as a trusted source to help Google better understand and surface our content in search results. Read a summary of this article on FAST. Get bite-sized news via a newcards interface. Give it a try. Click here to return to FAST Tap here to return to FAST FAST NAGOYA: Defending champion Shanti Pereira was the top qualifier in the women's Asian Games 200m heats on Saturday (Sep 26), booking her spot in the final.On a rainy evening at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium, the Singaporean registered a time of 23.10s in her heat. China's Chen Yujie was the next fastest overall qualifier with a time of 23.29s.Pereira will compete in the final on Sunday night. The top two from each heat along with the next two fastest qualifiers moved on to the final.
Speaking to reporters, the Singaporean said she had executed the race the way she wanted.
"I was really just trying to stay as relaxed as I can today ... I've got three races already in last few days," Pereira added. "I love the 200m, I think everyone knows, and I was just excited to get it going."
Earlier in the evening, Singapore' Ang Chen Xiang qualified for the 110m hurdles final after timing 13.88s.
CNA Games Guess Word Crack the word, one row at a time Buzzword Create words using the given letters Mini Sudoku Tiny puzzle, mighty brain teaser Mini Crossword Small grid, big challenge Word Search Spot as many words as you can Show More Show Less Shanti Pereira clocked a time of 23.10s in the Women's 200m heats at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games 2026 at the Paloma Mizuho Stadium in Nagoya, Sep 26, 2026. (Photo: CNA/Wallace Woon) Pereira's showing on Saturday comes a day after she retained her silver in the 100m. China's Chen won gold in a Games record time of 11.06s, while Pereira clocked a season’s best of 11.21s.
Pereira’s pet event is the 200m and her national record stands at 22.57s. At the Hangzhou Games, her victory was Singapore’s first athletics gold since 1974, when Chee Swee Lee won the women’s 400m.
"I know I am the defending champion, but at the same time, I'm just one of the participants that's here, and we're all fighting for the same thing," said Pereira.
"We're all giving everything we have."
Catch the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games live or on-demand on mewatch! Visit mewatch.sg/asiangames for details, and follow Mediacorp Sports on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook for the latest updates and trending content!
A single handpicked story that we think you shouldn't miss. Just one a day.
