Shanti to take on 4x400m relay next

SINGAPORE — Talented teen sprinter Shanti Pereira (picture) will be back in action this weekend, only a week after her scintillating individual performances at the IAAF World Youth Championships.

The 16-year-old Republic Polytechnic student, who set a new national women’s 100m record of 11.89sec and equalled the 29-year-old national 200m mark of 24.54 at the world meet in Donetsk, Ukraine, has been pencilled in for the Vietnam Open, which will be held in Ho Chi Minh City.

However, she will not be competing in any individual events.

Instead, her mission will be to help the women’s 4x400m relay team in their attempt to qualify for this December’s Southeast Asian Games in Myanmar.

Loh Chan Pew, the Singapore Athletic Association’s (SAA) Chief of Sports Development and Performance, told TODAY he will first have a discussion with Margaret Oh, Shanti’s coach, to see if her charge will be in a condition to race in Vietnam.

“We will see how it goes,” said Loh. “She’s coming back tomorrow (today) and then she will just be doing light training for the next few days. If she is all right, she’ll go.”

Shanti’s 4x400m relay team-mates are Dipna Lim-Prasad, the national 100m and 400m hurdles record holder, T Piriyah and Wendy Enn. The quartet set a new national under-23 record of 3min 48.16sec at the Taiwan Open in May. However, the time fell short of the SEA Games qualifying mark of 3:45.03.

But Loh thinks that Shanti’s times at the World Youth Championships will now give a huge boost to the team.

“Her times suggest that she can go well under 56sec in the 400m,” he said. “If the others improve on their times as well, there is a chance of qualifying.”

According to the SAA website, Shanti’s 400m split at the Taiwan Open was around 55.9sec. Lim-Prasad clocked around 55.8, while Piriyah and Wendy were timed at 56.7 and 59.7 respectively.

After the Vietnam Open, Shanti will represent the Singapore Sports School (SSP) as one of its alumni at the Thailand Sports School Games from Aug 22 to 27. She is expected to launch another assault at the national 100m and 200m records then.

Said SSP Director of Sports Irwin Seet: “Shanti has always won her races at the Thailand Sports School Games.

“Admittedly, the level of competition is not that of the World Youth Championships, but we will still be seeing some of Thailand and Malaysia’s best teen sprinters in action, and hopefully this will spur her on to have another crack at the national records.” GERARD WONG