Cebuana Olympian Mary Joy Tabal, who is with PSC chairman Butch Ramirez, shows off her major award from the PSA. (Photo from Mary Joy Tabal’s FB page)
MARY Joy Tabal, the lone Filipina marathoner who competed in the Olympics, raised the banner of Cebu anew when she was feted by the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) in its Annual Awards last Monday evening at the Le Pavillion Metropolitan Park in Pasay City.
Even with the numerous titles she has won in races here and abroad, Tabal, who only received a special citation last year, said the PSA award makes athletes like her feel special.
“It felt so great to receive an award like this. It’s like a prize for us athletes to be recognized for our achievements,” said Tabal, who competed in the 2016 Rio Olympics in Brazil.
“I felt more motivated and am very happy to see great Filipino athletes gathered in one event and be recognized.”
Also awarded was Cebuano taekwondo coach Glenn Lava. Lava was awarded together with JP Sabido and Ernesto Guzman Jr. for their gold medal haul in the World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships held in Lima, Peru last September.
This is Lava’s third time to accept a major award from the PSA after winning thrice in the world tournament.
Lava is an instructor at the S.TA.R Taekwondo Gym and the head coach of the University of San Carlos Taekwondo Team.
Training in Italy
The 27-year-old Tabal, meanwhile, will return to Cebu to prepare for her stint in the SM2SM Run 7 that will start and finish at the SM City Cebu. She will be defending her 21-kilometer title for the seventh straight time.
Tabal also bared that her corporate backer Motorace Philippines plans to send her to Italy with her trainer John Philip Dueñas to prepare for the Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia this August.
Tabal and Dueñas are now preparing the needed documents to process their visa for Italy.
“Hopefully our visa applications will be approved because we are planning to fly there at the end of this month. But if not, then we will set another schedule in April,” Tabal said.