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Shanti Pereira Crowned ST Athlete Of The Year For The First Time
Shanti Pereira Crowned ST Athlete Of The Year For The First Time
ST Athlete of the Year 2023
Sprint queen Shanti Pereira has become a national icon and inspiration to all Singaporeans after an incredible 2023. She kept eclipsing her performance at each competition, winning medals at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, Asian Athletics Championships and Asian Games, and breaking the 100m national mark six times and 200m national record six times in the year. Her achievements have led her to be named The Straits Times Athlete of the Year 2023. This is the first time that Shanti has won the annual award that started in 2009.
The run to her record-breaking performances started with the SEA Games in Cambodia in 2023. She won gold medals in both the 100m and 200m events, and repeated the same feats at the Asian Athletics Championships in July. Her stellar performance continued at the World Championships in Budapest in August, where Shanti became the first Singaporean runner to reach the semi-finals of the World Championships and earned her spot in the 200m event for the Paris Olympics in 2024 after meeting the qualification mark.
At the Asian Games, Shanti made history by winning Singapore's first athletics gold medal since 1974, along with a silver in the 100m event, a feat unprecedented for a Singaporean athlete.
In an interview with The Straits Times, Shanti said, “I saw all the nominees I was up against and they all had very incredible performances from last year. There were world champions and Asian Games medallists, so it’s a huge honour just to be given this award.” Wushu exponent and alumnus Jowen Lim who won at the World Championships in 2023 was one of the nominees of the award.
Summarising why Shanti is a deserving recipient of the award, Jaime Ho, editor for ST, shared, “Shanti is one of us. Her authenticity, her vulnerability and her strength in adversity have always been clear to her supporters. Her success in sports has shown us that each of us has the ability to excel in our own smaller ways.”
Sprint queen Shanti Pereira has become a national icon and inspiration to all Singaporeans after an incredible 2023. She kept eclipsing her performance at each competition, winning medals at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, Asian Athletics Championships and Asian Games, and breaking the 100m national mark six times and 200m national record six times in the year. Her achievements have led her to be named The Straits Times Athlete of the Year 2023. This is the first time that Shanti has won the annual award that started in 2009.
The run to her record-breaking performances started with the SEA Games in Cambodia in 2023. She won gold medals in both the 100m and 200m events, and repeated the same feats at the Asian Athletics Championships in July. Her stellar performance continued at the World Championships in Budapest in August, where Shanti became the first Singaporean runner to reach the semi-finals of the World Championships and earned her spot in the 200m event for the Paris Olympics in 2024 after meeting the qualification mark.
At the Asian Games, Shanti made history by winning Singapore's first athletics gold medal since 1974, along with a silver in the 100m event, a feat unprecedented for a Singaporean athlete.
In an interview with The Straits Times, Shanti said, “I saw all the nominees I was up against and they all had very incredible performances from last year. There were world champions and Asian Games medallists, so it’s a huge honour just to be given this award.” Wushu exponent and alumnus Jowen Lim who won at the World Championships in 2023 was one of the nominees of the award.
Summarising why Shanti is a deserving recipient of the award, Jaime Ho, editor for ST, shared, “Shanti is one of us. Her authenticity, her vulnerability and her strength in adversity have always been clear to her supporters. Her success in sports has shown us that each of us has the ability to excel in our own smaller ways.”
