MONDAY will be judgment day for Mary Joy Tabal whose request to be reinstated to the Philippine national team is expected to be decided that day when she meets with Philippine Athletics and Track and Field Association (PATAFA) head Philip Ella Juico in Manila.
Tabal became the first Filipina in history to qualify for Olympic marathon when she beat the Olympic qualifying time of 2:45 by clocking 2:43.29 in the Scotia Bank Ottawa Marathon in Canada last month, which is a qualifying race for the Rio Olympics.
But since she has resigned from the national team last year, the Cebuana long distance phenom failed to snag an automatic slot to Rio. And for her to be able to compete in the Summer Games this August, she needs PATAFA to reinstate her into the national squad.
Tabal will be joined in Manila by her main backers Jonel Borromeo and his brother Chipi Borromeo, the top honchos of Motorace/Kawasaki Racing Team. The Borromeos funded Tabal’s intensive training in Japan.
Although they are all optimistic about her reinstatement, its still Juico who will have the final say.
Tabal told CDN that she hopes the issue will be settled soon so that she can also decide whether to continue her training or not.
“It’s a difficult time for me right now because there are a lot of things that come to my mind,” Tabal said. “I know they will set conditions and it will be difficult for me if Philip (Dueñas) will not be the one to train me for the Olympics. I am just praying for the best, nothing else.”
Monday’s meeting will mark the first time that Tabal and Juico will meet after the former was recruited to the national team last year for the Singapore Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) where the Cebuana won silver. She left PATAFA in the last quarter of 2015 and trained on her own.
Motorace/Kawasaki Racing Team took her in last January.
Meanwhile, Borromeo said that he is willing to follow whatever conditions the PATAFA might set for the sake of Tabal’s reinstatement to the national team.