Cebu’s Tabal wins silver medal for PH
Cebu’s pride Mary Joy Tabal won a silver medal in women’s marathon, making up for the surprise fourth-place finish of Eduardo Buenavista in the men’s marathon of the 28th Singapore Southeast Asian Games yesterday in Singapore.
Under a heavy early morning downpour and run on a course near the Singapore National Stadium, the 25-year-old Cebuana, who was competing for the first time for the Philippines in the biennial games, placed second with a time of three hours, three minutes and 25 seconds, 1:14 behind Thai gold medalist Nattaya Thannaronnawat (3:04.39).
Vietnam’s Thi Thanh Hoang took the bronze (3:07.14).
Tabal, the two-time National Milo Marathon Queen, said she needed all her strength and some encouragement from trainer John Philip Dueñas to pull off the second-place finish.
“I needed to make sure that I can deliver a podium finish,” Tabal said.
“I was about to give up after 21 kilometers. I was going slow already. But then I remembered coach Philip’s (Dueñas) advice to take it slow and maintain the pace until the 30-kilometer mark before I set my own pace all the way to the finish line.”
Tabal said she was even advised by Dueñas to go for gold but was afraid to force the issue and decided to just make sure of the silver.
“In the last 3 kilometers, my body started to collapse. Coach Philip shouted at me at the side of the race course in the last 2 kilometers to stay close because the Thai runner started to slow down.
But I was very afraid that if I kept on pushing, I might collapse and not finish the race. But the other part of my mind kept on telling me to push because I was so close to the gold,” Tabal said.
Still, it was an impressive finish for the multi-titled Cebuana, considering the difficulties she encountered.
“Aside from the heavy rain, the head wind was very strong. We also got lost in the middle of the race because the road was very confusing and there was a part of the route where there was no marshal, no hazard cones and lights,” Tabal said.
Tabal’s silver is the first for the Philippines in athletics as of press time.
Although the race conditions were more favorable in the men’s race, Buenavista, the 2009 Laos SEA Games marathon king, could only check in fourth (2:39.26) in the men’s marathon won by hometown runner Rui Yong Guillame Soh in a slow time of 2:34.56.
Thailand’s Boonthung Srisung bagged the silver (2:34.56), Nguyen Thanh Hoang the bronze (2:37.10).
The diminutive Filipino marathoner later disclosed that he was suffering from a bum stomach and had vomited twice on the 42.195-kilometer course.
“Vertek (Buenavista’s nickname) had been complaining about stomach problems since we got here last week and we had to take him to our medical team for checkup because of his constant vomiting,” track and field secretary general Renato Unso said. /with a report from the inquirer