Wednesday, December 12, 2007 Pabillore and company target 4 golds in Seag karatedo By Lynde Salgados
"MAKA-gold lage `ta (We really can hit gold)" were the first words of Joey Pabillore who vowed to give his best as he leads the 15-man Philippine karatedo team to the 24th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
The 29-year-old Pabillore and company left for Thailand on Monday with a bright hope that they could nail at least four golds in SEA Games' karatedo competition.
With grandslam winner Gretchen Malalad now taking her job seriously as TV reporter of ABS-CBN and the other female holdover Marna Pabillore exploring a new life in the US, the comebacking Joey is probably the only one left in the roster of RP karatekas with vast experience and colorful past to build confidence.
"Ako ra ang nabilin nga medalist ini nga lineup pero kombate gihapon `ta. (I am the only one left in this lineup, but we will still fight) We're targetting two golds each in male and female divisions of the karatedo event," Joey told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro.
Although confiding he never had any support from the city government of Cagayan de Oro, the 2001 Malaysia SEA Games gold medalist said he has been excited about the thought of bringing honors again to the country and the poor Filipino people who could better well understand the true meaning of heroism.
"Maningkamot lang `ta nga maka-gold pag-usab. Of course, malipay ta'g dako kon makahunahuna ang siyudad paghatag og incentives sa mga winning athletes. Adtong nagdaug ko sa Malaysia gipahulat-hulat baya mi'g usa ka oras ayha gi-entertain sa City Hall (We will just hope for the best. Of course, we will feel honored if the city would give incentives to the winning athletes. The last time I won a title in Malaysia, we waited for an hour before the City Hall entertained us)," recalled Joey, who also bagged a silver in Vietnam (2003) and settled for a bronze when Mandaue City, Philippines hosted the karatedo SEA Games meet in 2005.
Joey said their previous tune-up bouts in Europe against much bigger and fancied opponents are experiences that would make them confident in their quest for SEA Games glory.
