Asian Games 2023: Veronica Shanti Pereira wins women's 100m silver, Singapore's first athletics medal since 1974, as Ge Manqi claims home gold
The Asian champion Shanti comes close to a historic gold medal, but settles for silver and her country's first Asian Games medal in athletics in nearly 50 years behind Chinese athlete Ge Manqi.
Athletics
Shanti Pereira became Singapore's first Asian Games medallist in athletics since 1974 at the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou held in 2023 on Saturday (30 September), claiming silver in the women's 100m final.
Shanti was quickest out of the blocks and led for most of the race, before losing a little bit of steam towards the end, as Ge Manqi of hosts People's Republic of China overtook her in the final metres to win in 11.23 seconds.
The Singaporean looked to be aware that she had come remarkably close to winning only her country's third ever Asian Games gold in the sport, appearing disappointed as she watched a replay of the race on the big screen with her hands on her head.
Pereira's 11.27 was still good for silver, and there was a somewhat funny moment afterwards when she had come to terms with the result, looking around for a flag but failing to find one and instead pointing to the one on her kit.
Bahrain's Hajar Saad Alkhadi took bronze in a photo-finish ahead of Supanich Poolkerd of Thailand in 11.35.
Speaking afterwards, Shanti said: "I didn't even know it's been almost 50 years. It just feels incredible. I knew I had to give my absolute all today. I was up against really, really stiff competition.
"I'm really glad with how it turned out. My start was not bad and the finish was pretty good. I felt I was crashing a bit because I was gunning for that dip. Mechanics could've been better but the start, I feel it was strong. I think overall the race was executed pretty well."