Speed kills for this MP, too

GUANGZHOU—“MP” is hoping that the boxing adage that has become popular of late will help in the Philippine medal bid at the 16th Asian Games in this industrial hotbed in Southern China.

Speed kills.

Here, however, MP stands for Marna Pabillore, who hopes that speed will do good for her in karate as it has done wonders for Manny Pacquiao in boxing.

“I’ve been working on my hand speed lately,” said the 30-year-old Pabillore, who said the shift in strategy is a necessity forced on her by her age.

Pabillore, who now campaigns in a weight class a notch higher, revealed she no longer can trim her weight as easily as she used to.

“I sometimes get weak trying to lose weight,” she said. “In one event, I wasn’t as competitive, that’s why the coaches decided that I try a higher weight class.”

Slowly, she has gotten accustomed to it. The Doha Asian Games silver medalist recently won a gold in a recent world karate invitational and hopes that her luck will hold in this quadrennial event.

Pabillore won her medal in Doha in the -53 kg class but now campaigns in the -55 kg division, where she doesn’t need to diet too much. But the added pounds translated into taller opponents.

“It’s really hard to strike using kicks, so I use my hands mostly and the only advantage I might have is speed so that’s what I’m training for,” said Pabillore.

“But of course, the Asian Games are different,” she admitted.