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SEA Games: Inconsolable Shanti cries her heart out after losing 200m crown

KUALA LUMPUR — The tears begun as she sat in the athletes' area at the finish line in a daze, and as the reality of her gold medal loss hit her, Shanti Pereira could not stop crying.

An emotional Shanti Pereira holds up the Singapore flag after winning bronze in the women's 200m sprint at the 2017 SEA Games. Photo: Jason Quah/TODAY

An emotional Shanti Pereira holds up the Singapore flag after winning bronze in the women's 200m sprint at the 2017 SEA Games. Photo: Jason Quah/TODAY

KUALA LUMPUR — As she sat in the athletes' area at the finish line in a daze, and as the reality of her gold medal loss hit her, Shanti Pereira started crying.

And the tears did not stop flowing for over an hour on Wednesday night (Aug 23), as the 20-year-old hid in a stairwell at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium surrounded by her coach Margaret Oh, officials, friends and teammates. 

The defending champion in the SEA Games women's 200m, she had just been beaten to gold by Vietnam's SEA Games 100m champion Le Tu Chinh, who blasted past her rivals to claim her second gold medal - and the coveted sprint double - of the Games in 23.32sec.

Racing in lane 7, Pereira - who won a bronze in the 100m on Tuesday - started off quickly, but the 20-year-old Vietnamese sprinter was uncatchable on the 100m straight, as she powered past the field to claim gold. Malaysia's Husniah Zulkifli won the silver in 23.64sec, while Pereira claimed bronze in a new season's best time of 23.68sec.

While she had shed tears of joy two years ago at the National Stadium after winning Singapore’s first women’s sprint gold in 42 years, this time in Kuala Lumpur, there was only disappointment and sadness. As she stepped onto the podium to receive her bronze medal, it took an impromptu fist-bump from Singapore National Olympic Council President Tan Chuan-Jin to make her smile.

But a teary Pereira – who was accompanied by team manager Yip Ren Kai – struggled to compose herself on Wednesday night when she met the Singaporea media over an hour after her 200m race.

Taking a deep breath midway through the interview, she said: “Things didn’t go as planned today, but I would like to thank everyone who was part of my journey, my family and friends who came down to support me, and everyone who supported me in Singapore.

“I’m really grateful for them, grateful for my coach who's been with me for so long and I’m really thankful for her. I gave my best today, I did the best I could do.”

Oh said the pressure of defending the gold had affected the sprinter, who also cried just before the start of the race.

“She was frightened of herself and she was under a lot of pressure, the pressure of defending the medal,” said Oh.

“Actually her training times were improving and she was doing better times than in 2015 (when she set the national record of 23.60sec). She went out too fast at the start of the race today and that’s why she died at the back. The Vietnamese girl is very fast…she did an 11.4 in the 100m while Shanti did 11.7.”

Ahead of the SEA Games, Oh was embroiled in disagreements with Singapore Athletics over a number of issues, including the venue of a planned centralised training camp. As a result, the association had threatened to drop Pereira from the women’s 4x100m relay team for the Games.

Although the issues were eventually resolved and a major Games preparation committee headed by Yip were appointed to manage the SEA Games athletics team, Oh said her charge could have been affected by the problems.

Oh added: “…Slightly (affected)…She also wanted to prove to people that she can do it.”

Oh also added that Pereira will be looking ahead to the Asian Games in Indonesia next year after meeting the qualifying time of 23.63sec – the sixth fastest time from the previous edition in 2014.

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SEA Games 2017

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