Shanti smashes national record in 200m heats
Barely 17 hours after winning Singapore's first SEA Games medal in the women's 100m for 42 years, sprinter Veronica Shanti Pereira rewrote the national best in her pet event, the 200m.
She clocked a time of 23.82sec in Wednesday morning's heats, smashing her previous mark of 23.99sec.
The time meant Shanti, 18, was the second-quickest qualifier for the final this evening (Wednesday, 6.35pm), behind newly-minted 100m champion Kayla Richardson of the Philippines, who qualified with a time of 23.67sec.
Singapore's other representative in the women's 200m, Kugapriya Chandran, also made it into the final with a 24.94sec effort.
Meanwhile, Lee Cheng Wei will be Singapore's sole representative in the men's 200m final (Wednesday, 6.45pm) after he qualified seventh-fastest in a time of 21.59sec.
Elfi Mustapa, the Republic's other entrant in the event, pulled up with a hamstring problem midway through the race.
Vietnam's Le Trong Hinh emerged as the fastest qualifier with a time of 21.14sec, and reigning champion Jirapong Meenapra of Thailand, who flopped in Tuesday's 100m final, was second-quickest with a time of 21.24sec.
Read the full report in our print edition on June 11.
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