Shanti Pereira goes below 12 seconds again in 100m as final spot eludes her

Shanti Pereira, 16, clocked a time of 11.96 seconds in the 100m semi-finals at the IAAF World Youth Championships, and did not qualify for the final. (Photo © Bernie Lee. Used with permission)

Donetsk, Ukraine, Thursday, July 11, 2013 – Singapore’s Shanti Veronica Pereira clocked a time of 11.96 seconds in the semi-finals of the women’s 100m competition at the 8th IAAF World Youth Championships. The wind speed was -0.3 metres per second.

Shanti was the second slowest off her starting blocks in the second semi-final but finished well to place fourth. Ecuador’s Angela Tenorio – the only runner slower off the blocks than Shanti – won the race in 11.51s.

Shanti was ranked 13th out of the 24 semi-finalists. Only the top two from each heat, followed by the next two fastest runners, qualify for the final.

Although she was unable to improve on her 11.89s clocked in the opening round, which was a new national record, she still went below the previous mark of 12.01s.

Shanti will race in the 200m heats tomorrow, at 3.05pm Singapore time. Her personal best of 24.60s is well within touching distance of the national record of 24.54s, set by Prema Govindan in August 1984.

Two other Singapore athletes featured on the second day of competition. Ang Ding Hui ran a season’s best of 14.42 seconds in the men’s 110m hurdles (0.914m) heats to place 35th overall. Linus Chong clocked a time of 16.50s in the same event.

Aside from Shanti in the women’s 200m heats, Singapore will be represented tomorrow in the qualifying rounds by national record holder Chan Sheng Yao in the men’s pole vault at 2.45pm, and Benjamin Ong in the men’s triple jump at 10pm.

Singapore athletes at the 8th IAAF World Youth Championships