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Scans would reveal a stress injury in her fibula.
It came as a big blow to Pereira as it meant she would miss her debut in the Diamond League competition in Xiamen and Shanghai, as well as two major meets in Japan among other competitions.
The Diamond League is a one of the most elite competitions in athletics, with 15 one-day invitational events held all over the world, contested by the world’s top athletes.
“I think I already knew that I had to give these competitions a miss just because of the pain I was in. And just being realistic – when I got back (from Florida) it was just two weeks to those competitions,” she said.
“Deep down, I knew it was probably not going to happen.”
2023 was a career-defining year for Pereira.
At the Hangzhou Asian Games, she won the women’s 200m final. This was Singapore’s first athletics gold medal since 1974. Days before, Pereira ended Singapore’s nearly 50-year wait for a track and field medal at the Asian Gamesafter she clinched a silver in the 100m.
In August, she became the first Singaporean to make a World Championships semi-finals after a stellar showing in the 200m.
Pereira notched a sprint double at the Asian Athletics Championships in July and also became the first Singaporean woman to win both the 100m and 200m events at the same edition of the SEA Games in May.
And for an athlete in such red-hot form, not being able to compete has been tough.
“I took a couple of days to just be sad, basically,” said Pereira. “(I was) just very upset. It’s just a downer every time you miss these opportunities.”
IMPORTANT TO BE ‘PATIENT’
But Pereira is no stranger to dealing with adversity.
The sprinter first burst into the nation’s consciousness at the 2015 Southeast Asian Games when she took gold in the 200m, clocked a personal best and set a new national record. Her win also ended a 42-year gold medal drought for Singapore in a SEA Games sprint event.
But with it came the enormity of expectations. Coupled with injuries, some people wrote Pereira off over the next few years. The negativity ate her up, Pereira said previously.
It got to the point that there were times when she was no longer excited to compete or train. Instead, what she felt was fear.
While dealing with an injury at such an inopportune time has been tough, Pereira has drawn on previous experiences.
“It’s important to be patient in this process. Ultimately, it is still a process even though it was a setback,” she said.
“I had to learn how to embrace it and adapt to the situation and change things here and there, which usually happens every season, but this time it is just a bit different.
“My past experiences did help me get into this mindset of: ‘It’s okay, let’s just do what we can right now’.”
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