Shanti finishes seventh in 200m final at the Asian Athletics Championships

Singapore's sprint queen Shanti Pereira clocked 23.80 seconds - 0.20sec off her personal best and national record - to finish seventh in the women's 200m final at the Asian Athletics Championships in India last night.

The 20-year-old, the only Singaporean competing in the event, was third in her heat with 23.86sec yesterday morning.

The top two runners from each of the three heats made the final, along with two fastest third-placed athletes.

Pereira was ranked joint-sixth with Vietnam's Quach Thi after the heats - both had the same timing - but the latter did not make the final because she placed fourth in her heat.

Japan's Kana Ichikawa was the other third-placed runner to make the final.

Kazakhstan's Viktoriya Zyabkina won the race in 23.10sec, while Sri Lanka's Rumeshika Kumari Rathnayake (23.43) and Kazakhstan's Olga Safronova (23.47) were second and third respectively.

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Pereira was the only South-east Asian in the final yesterday.

Her coach Margaret Oh said: "Before we came here, I have already told her that her aim is to see what her standing is in Asia, and as long as she is able to go within 95 per cent of her personal best, she is on target, as she is to peak at the SEA Games, and not this meet."

The Singapore Sports School alumnus won the 200m gold with a national record of 23.60, as well as the 100m bronze in 11.88, at the 2015 SEA Games on home soil.

Pereira had clocked a faster time of 23.74sec in her pet event at the Thai Open last month.

She had finished second to Vietnam's Le Tu Chinh (23.52sec).

Malaysia's Komalam Shally Selvaretnam, who finished third in that meet with 24.53sec, also competed in India. She ranked 11th out of 18 competitors with also 24.53sec.

Pereira, Quach and Cambodia's Sreypheap Duong were the only Asean athletes registered for the event in India, although Duong did not eventually race.

Pereira was the only Singaporean in action on the last day of the four-day meet yesterday.

She was part of the the women's 4x100m relay team, along with Wendy Enn, Kugapriya Chandran and Nur Izlyn Zaini, who clocked 45.97sec to finish seventh in the final on Saturday.

Kazakhstan (43.53sec), China (44.50sec) and India (44.57sec) finished on the podium, while Thailand (44.74sec) and Malaysia (45.18sec) were fourth and fifth respectively.