Asian Games 2023 athletics: Puripol Boonson qualifies for men's 200m semis; Shanti Pereira through to women's final
Southeast Asia will continue to have representation in the individual 200m sprints, as Thailand's Boonson and Singapore's Pereira advance in their events.
Athletics
Southeast Asia's sprinters continue to shine at the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou held in 2023, as Puripol Boonson of Thailand – alongside Malaysia's Nasir Russel Alexander and Singapore's Mark Lee Ren – successfully made it through to the evening's men's 200m semi-finals on Sunday (1 October).
With the men's heats mostly run into headwinds, the athletes had an additional hurdle. However, it was no problem for Boonson, Alexander or Lee. Boonson came home in 21.26, third in his heat in the last automatic qualification spot. Meanwhile, Alexander (21.31) and Lee – who ran a new personal best 21.44 – each made it to the semis as one of the four-fastest non-automatic qualifiers.
Saudi Arabia's Abdullah Abkar Mohammed was the top qualifier in 20.78.
Meanwhile, Singapore's Veronica Shanti Pereira, the favourite in the women's 200m, qualified directly to the final as the fastest runner from the women's heats. Her time of 23.14 (+2.0m/s tailwind) puts her in the prime middle lane for Monday night's final, with no semi-finals to be held in the women's event.
She will look to become Singapore's first Asian Games gold medallist in athletics since 1974 in that final, having already become her country's first medallist in the sport since that same year when she took 100m silver.