Torres hopes to surpass own mark

LONDON—Marestella Torres wants to believe she’s in the peak of her powers.

Asia’s former long jump queen is coming off a “very helpful” final phase of training in Guilford, south of London, weighs lighter than she’s ever been, and packs a sculpted abdomen that will make men gush.

Torres, who is in her second Olympics after Beijing 2008, said her training prior to London was a lot different this time.

“My coach (Joseph Sy) and I worked on technique and focused on the abdominal part of my body,” said the 28-year-old Torres in Filipino. “I need to be airborne longer, that’s why I needed to muscle up.”

She said the takeoff is not a problem and validated that with a 6.62-meter leap at the Kozonov Memorial championships in Kazakhstan last July 17, a week before she and five other Filipinos were invited to London by the British government to train alongside their Olympic rivals.

That result in Almaty fell just a tenth of a meter short of Torres’ own national record of 6.72 which she hopes to surpass when the women’s long jump touches off the athletics competition on Friday.

“I hope to break my record this time,” Torres said.

Because she focused on holding it longer in the air, Torres, already blessed with a supremely sculpted abs, worked to shed 7 pounds in the runup to the Olympics and now weighs 116 lb—just right, she said, for her height (5-foot-3) and build.

Twelve of the 40 entries from 34 countries in her event will advance to the medal round, which she failed to reach in Beijing with a leap of 6.17m—good for 34th in a field of 41.