The 18-year-old clocked 23.60sec in front of a raucous crowd at the National Stadium to take the title ahead of the Philippines’ Kayla Richardson and Nguyen Thi Oanh of Vietnam.

“I didn’t know I was going to win,” an emotional Pereira said.

“I can’t describe how I feel like now.

“I hoped for a medal….a medal, but a gold?”

Elsewhere, on another packed day of action, home favourite Joseph Schooling continued his dominant form in the pool as he secured his eighth gold medal of the event.

Schooling is becoming the star of the competition and he maintained his impressive display at the OCBC Aquatics Centre, winning the 50m butterfly in a Games record 23.49, finishing ahead of Glenn Victor Sutanto of Indonesia, while another home swimmer, Quah Zheng Wen, was third.

The youngster then went on to seal the 200m crown, claiming another Games record, taking victory in 2min 00.66sec, again beating  Zheng Wen.

Tomorrow will see Schooling bid for a ninth gold in the medley relay and few would bet against him continuing his superb haul.

With just one day of swimming competitions left to go, Singapore have so far won 19 of 31 gold medals available in a total haul of 175, 60 of which are gold.

It also proved to be an excellent day for the Philippines as they reigned supreme in the boxing ring, claiming five gold medals in what was a superb display.

Josie Gabuco got her nation off to the best possible start by securing a fourth straight Southeast Asian Games title with a unanimous points decision in her light-flyweight bout with Thailand's Chathumat Raksat.

Ian Clark Bautista, keen to banish the demons of his Asian Games exit last year, then sealed a narrow split decision win against Mohamed Hanurdeen Hamid of Singapore in the flyweight, division despite appearing to dominate the contest.

Men's bantamweight Mario Fernandez made light work of Thailand’s Tanes Ongjunta, stopping him in the second round.

Junel Cantancio edged a narrow lightweight match-up with Vietnam's Van Hai Nguyen.

THe 2011 world junior champion Eumir Felix Marcial managed the only knockout of the day in his welterweight clash with Singapore’s Jia Wei Tay.

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