KUALA LUMPUR — She didn’t enjoy the best of warm-ups and a shade of self-doubt lingered in Dipna Lim-Prasad’s mind ahead of the 400m final.

But at the critical moment, the 26-year-old remembered to trust herself – and went on to create history on the Bukit Jalil Stadium track as she smashed a 43-year old record en route to winning SEA Games silver.

Lim-Prasad clocked 54.18sec to erase Chee Swee Lee’s time of 55.08sec set at the 1974 Asian Games, the longest-standing women’s national record, and become the first Singaporean female to go below 55s. 

Her podium finish was also the Republic’s first in the 400m at the SEA Games since Chee and Cheah Kim Teck won gold and silver respectively in 1975.

Plonking herself down on the curb at the mixed zone, an exhausted Lim-Prasad’s first words when asked about how she felt was an emphatic: “Damn shiok!” She then described the frazzled lead-up to her race.

“Even though I got a silver yesterday (in the 400m hurdles), it was far from my personal best so the question of whether I would come through today (was in my mind), even though I was sure my fitness was there.

“So I tried to focus, but my warm-up today was all over the place – I was too fast, (then) I was too slow and the pacing just wasn’t right.”

But it all came to a point where she told herself to believe and “f*** it, just run”.

“When I hit the 200m mark, I was like, ‘okay, it’s time to go’, and I went,” she added. 

“At the last 100m, I still had the strength to push and (even though) I could feel the Thai girl coming up, I was like ‘no, no, I want the silver!’

“So it was really nice and just really grateful that everything came together.”

Vietnam’s Nguyen Thi Huyen won gold in 52.48s, while Thailand’s Supanich Poolkerd got bronze in 54.55s.

It did not hit Lim-Prasad that she had broken the record until her husband Poh Seng Song, who was watching from the stands yelled out to her. 

Visibly relieved, Lim-Prasad admitted that the timing meant more to her than the medal as it was something she had been trying to crack over the past year.

She had missed it by 0.02sec at the Thailand Open in June. Then, she entered last month’s Malaysian Open brimming with confidence that it would finally fall, but had to pull out due to a virus.

“Getting the record is massive, so I am really happy,” she beamed. “For sure, the medal made it more special but the timing is the most objective thing, if I ran a really slow timing and still got silver, it wouldn’t mean as much.

“It’s like, justification or confirmation, that I’m getting better as an athlete.”

Lim-Prasad also credited her Portuguese coach, Luis Cunha, whose contract runs out at the end of the year. 

“Under Luis, I’ve improved so much, not just in running but also my mindset, so I hope he stays,” she said.

Lim-Prasad has two remaining events left — the 4x100m relay on Friday (Aug 25) and the 4x400m on Saturday — and is hopeful the teams can “do something special”.

She is aiming to go even faster next and wants to go below 54s, before moving on to 53 and then 52, which would place her around Olympic qualification standards. 

Lim-Prasad, who went to the London 2012 Olympics on a wildcard, will remain grounded but hopes that her progress has shown everyone what she is capable of.

“I don’t want to get ahead of myself, promise the world or just get over-ambitious because I’ve done that before and the crash isn’t a nice one, so I’m taking it one step at a time,” she said. 

“I’ve proven to myself and a few people that I am capable of certain things in spite of some difficulties, so I will just keep going and hopefully the results will continue coming.”

In the women’s high jump final, Michelle Sng, the national record-holder, was recorded as finishing second but Singapore Athletics have lodged a protest over the result. The victory ceremony for the event has been postponed until a decision is made by the SEA Games appeals jury.