Shylah’s kickstart to a boxing dream
Pacquiao steps out of senate to prepare Day reboots mental approach and eyes No.1
MANNY Pacquiao spent three hours in the gym yesterday revving up his 38year-old engine as he plans to roar over the top of Jeff Horn in Brisbane on July 2.
As Horn flew to Sydney for an interview on The Project television show, Pacquiao showed he had a special project of his own as he aims to score his first knockout win since stopping Miguel Cotto in 2009.
The boxing great took a break from work in the Philippines senate to go through a 15-round training session at the upscale Elorde Gym inside the Mall of Asia shopping complex in Manila.
According to the Sports Interactive Network of the Philippines, Pacquiao did five rounds on the punching mitts, followed by two rounds on the heavy bag and two more on the double end ball before turning the speed ball into a blur for another two rounds.
He finished with another two rounds of shadow boxing and two of skipping and 10 minutes of stomach exercises.
His workout also contained five-minutes of prayers.
Pacquiao started the day with a 45-minute run inside Manila’s Forbes Park compound.
“Great to be back in the gym,’’ he tweeted.
Pacquiao has not fought since November when he regained the WBO welterweight title with a 12round decision over American Jessie Vargas in Las Vegas.
He had first won the WBO title by halting Cotto in the same city eight years earlier.
The world champ was put through his paces yesterday by assistant trainers Buboy Fernandez and Nonoy Neri.
His American coach Freddie Roach is expected in Manila shortly.
Pacquiao said while he was still shaking off the ring rust, the workout was a good start to the serious business of fighting Horn before an expected crowd of 55,000 at Suncorp Stadium.
“Being back in the ring gives me a wonderful feeling. There is extra adrenaline in my body,” Pacquiao said.
“I am not taking my opponent for granted.” ON the eve of his Players Championship title defence, Queensland golfer Jason Day has set himself the considerable task of reeling in runaway world No.1 Dustin Johnson in 2017.
The physically gifted, longhitting Johnson has cleared out at the top of the world rankings since capitalising on Day’s mediocre US PGA Tour season start, which has yielded a best finish of Pebble Beach.
The 32-year-old American’s past four starts include three consecutive wins, including two World Golf Championships, before a runner-up finish at the Wells Fargo Championship last week on return from the freak injury that put him out of the US Masters.
After ending Day’s 47-week reign as No.1 in February, fifth place at Johnson has increased his lead over world No.2 Rory McIlroy to a whopping five points, with Day now at No.3.
Speaking at the TPC Sawgrass course in Florida yesterday, Day admitted catching reigning US Open champion Johnson would be a tall order in his current majestic form.
“Dustin is playing pretty well. It’s pretty hard to keep up when (he) hits it 350 yards, flicks it on with a wedge and holes all the putts,” Day said.
“But I’m trying to focus on getting back to that winning form, the practice workload I was doing (as No.1) and hopefully the results will come.”
Day believes a reboot of his mental approach will be key to returning to the top, having been heavily distracted previously due to his mother’s cancer diagnosis. connor.obrien@news.com.au MANY years ago, Shylah Waikai was encouraged by her father to take up kickboxing as a means to learn self-defence.
Little did the Gold Coast student know it would lead to her representing her nation of birth, New Zealand, on a global scale.
Waikai was this week announced as part of New Zealand’s boxing team for the Youth Commonwealth Games in The Bahamas in July.
The 16-year-old was in class when she received an email from the head of Boxing New Zealand to confirm the good news.
“I was actually in school at the time so I just did a little cheer to myself,” she laughed.
Hailing from Huntly on New Zealand’s North Island, she will compete in the under-51kg category and is focused on the “business” of her trip to the glamorous Caribbean holiday destination.
“Honestly I am just there to win the gold,” Waikai said.
“My parents and my coaches and everyone who has supported me, I’m not going to let them waste their support and money on me just to go over there and participate. “I’m there to win.” Chief among those she is desperate to do proud is her father Mete Waikai, who she labelled as her idol.
“He pushes me in the background behind the scenes; he is the one who got me into this sport and he has got a really good mentality when it comes to sport,” she said.
Waikai moved to Australia in her early years and then to the Gold Coast at age eight. Four years later, she started boxing at Ashmore PCYC before following coach Damien O’Mara to Nerang PCYC.
She had originally began in kickboxing but didn’t like the kicking aspect. “I just stuck with the boxing,” she said.
Waikai thanked O’Mara for his part in getting her to this point, going above and beyond merely the technical teachings by even helping to fund her trips back to her homeland to qualify for the Youth Commonwealth Games team.
In the meantime before that prestigious event, Waikai will undertake a solid training block, preparing physically and mentally as well as fitting in “a lot of praying”.
“For a moment, I lost the desire to be world No.1; I was mentally burnt out,” he said.
“Now, I’m in a rebuilding stage to try to get back to the top.
“I would do anything in the world to get back because there’s no better feeling than being the best.”
The $10.5 million Championship starts Sawgrass on Friday. Players at TPC