Shanti Pereira beats European sprint champion to win 200m gold in Berlin

Sprint queen Shanti Pereira dusted off the confetti from her conquering of Asia and now has her eyes set on Europe.

She clocked 23.32 seconds to claim gold in the 200m at the Mittsommernacht Athletics meet, beating German Gina Luckenkemper, current European 100m and 4x100m relay champion in Charlottenburg, Berlin on Sunday.

Earlier, Pereira, 26, had matched her national record of 11.20sec in the 100m but finished second behind Germany's Rebekka Haase who clocked 11.13sec.

Singapore Athletics president Lien Choong Luen was delighted with Pereira's form and said: "Very happy for her, to be able to go from strength to strength. It has been a pretty long, interesting season definitely, not an easy one.

"The next big challenge ahead is clearly the Asian Games, quietly confident on her behalf of her performance."

Pereira had claimed gold in the 100m and 200m at July's Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok, ending the Republic's 16-year medal drought in the competition.

Lien also feels that Pereira is "inspiring a new generation" of South-east Asian athletes with her recent results. He said: "Shanti and Coach Luis' string of stellar performances lends weight to this and also helps us stand on par with our neighbours.

"Everyone is constantly improving, and so must we. So at this Asian Games - we have no demands or expectations of her because I know that she and her coach are their own best motivators."

Pereira will head to Malmo, Sweden for the Folksam Grand Prix on Aug 5 and Copenhagen on Aug 9 before competing in the World Athletics Championships on Aug 19 in Budapest.

She will then travel to Hangzhou, China for the Sept 23-Oct 8 Asian Games. She owns the fastest times in both the 100m (11.20) and 200m (22.69) for an Asian female sprinter this season.